Hidden
by LeMoNsOuR
Summary: Once upon a time someone decided to hide a secret from the world. Everyone has a connection, and it lies within the hidden memories that Greenlake had kept hidden for all this time... .:Don't read all at once. Really...don't do it:.
1. A Really Bad Genesis

**DISCLAIMER: Me No mak-ey. The only thing I invented was a dumbwaiter I installed on the living room stairs.**

_Fate.  
It's the only thing that humans have as an excuse for their failures in life._

I guess the whole thing started with the arm...

I still remember its long, tattered sleeve, and the fingers that barely stuck out of the end of it. They were grayish, large, and green dirt was visible from under the fingernails.

It was a stranger with a long coat and a hooded sweater over his face, obscuring it from view. He looked like one of those ugly fuckers from that movie "The Village".

"Hey, lil' girl…" said a voice from the hooded 'thing' that grasped my arm tightly. His breath was so nasty it even blinded me for a few seconds.

_-Cough-_

"How's about making a hundred bucks?" hissed the Hood in an overdramatic alleyway accent.

"Well," I thought for a moment, then surprised him with an incredibly stupid answer;  
" I could get more money than that by selling counterfeit boobs... Besides, there's a police guy over there." I said dimly, pointing to a police officer just across the road.

"He's not a REAL police officer, silly girl. He's on lookout incase a real cop comes along." The hood's hold was making my arm start throbbing in pain.

_Well there goes that plan_

"What do you want!" I demanded, frustrated, trying to tug my arm off his grasp.

"You're the lucky little kid who's gonna do me a _favor_."

_Oh my God..._

"P-please don't rape me." I said, almost in tears. "I have an older cousin! With real breasts! She's Swedish, too!"

The Hood laughed.

"As much as I'd like to meet your Swedish cousin, I ain't gowna rape a freaka-lookin kid like you."

My fear was replaced by hurt and anger.

"So I'm not _good_ enough to be raped?" An unusually large, sad tear slid down my cheek, "You think I'm ugly."

The Hood stuttered, "No no. You're not _that _ugly."

While the Hood lowered his head to hide his expression of discomfort, I tried to grab the gun that I could see portruding from the sleeve of his wrist .

As if the Hood had heard my thoughts, he pulled out the gun first and gently planted it on the side of my head. His other hand was clenching my hair and practically pulling it from my skull.

"Here's a gun for ya." He chuckled and a foul odor came from the hood, hiding his face from me.

"So do you wanna make a hundred dollars... or wake up _dead_ in this alley with lead in your brain?"

"How can you wake up dead-" he pulled at my hair, harder this time.

"SHUT UP!" He removed the gun from my right temple. "Don't run away!" he threatened when he put the gun back into the coat.

The Hood took another object out of his coat. It was a small, plastic zip-lock bag, containing white powder….

I began to understand; "Man, that's-"

"-Cocaine." interrupted the hooded criminal.

He slapped the nauseating plastic bag onto my shivering hand. I inhaled the cold, stale winter air and let out a shuddering sigh, trying to hide my extreme fear.

"Now what I want you to do for me, lil' girl is to go across the street to the cop you just saw.-ACT CASUAL-and pretend you're talking to him. Then give him this bag. You got it, lil' girl?"

That's when I suddenly realized-

"Hey, your voice is kind of familiar." I was interrupted by a hard shove.

"DO YOU WANT A HUNDRED DOLLARS OR NOT?"

I was stuck.

It was 2:25 in the morning and no one sane is out in the streets at midnight. Unfortunately I was a foreigner from an insignificant blotch of land on the Red Sea, and had just arrived into this Houston place 6 hours ago.

There was also the fact that I suffer from a VERY bad short-term memory problem. I turn a corner on the sidewalk and I can't remember where I came from! Eventually some neighbor recognizes me and plops me onto my doorstep, telling my parents not to let their 'mentally disabled' child wander off in the streets again.

I was stuck.

But, I really _did_ want a hundred dollars, and I was just some incredibly stupid foreign kid with nothing in her pocket but a dollar and some chewing gum.

What to do, what to do?

Did I mention I was stuck?

CHOICE 1: run away and get shot by an anonymous bum in a hood who apparently suffers from gingivitis.

CHOICE 2: Give yucky plastic bag to a loser whose life is already messed up and earn a hundred dollars…..

Hmmmm...

I look left, then right, then left again.

I cross the street.

The "cop" looks at me and smirks.

"Hi" I say.

I hand the small plastic bag to the "cop"/drug person.

My plan was to go back across the street and collect my $100.

But instead, someone grabs my arm again:

The cop.

"Lil' girl, you've gotten yourself into big trouble." He shows me his badge, and I began to cry. Loudly.

He _was _a real cop!

Just before the cop dunks my head into his police car, I glance across the street.

The hooded stranger pulls off his dark disguise and I see his face. My heart stops beating, and I feel it never would start again.

For there, with a guilty façade smudged across his face, was my brother.

My brother, the Hood.

The same brother who welcomed me in the airport with a smile and a hug, saying. "Welcome to America!"

The same brother who told me he was glad to see me for the first time since I was barely eight. That he was SORRY FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO BE THERE IN MY PARENTS' **FUNERAL**.

The brother that was supposed to be my new parent.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the cop glimpse at by brother and...he nods to him.

They had planned this….both of them.

**BUT WHY?**

That is how I ended up at Camp Greenlake without any idea of what had happened, without a clue, without a family, and without a hundred dollars.


	2. Family History: a shorty shortcakes

_**3**_

_**If you already know this story, don't read all of it. But the last part's new ;)**_

_**-FLASHBACK-**_

_**It was 10:00 P.M... 7-year-old Lydia was being tucked into her bed by her mother. 17-year-oid Jack, who shared the same room with her, was smoking a cigarette on his bed.**_

"_**Jack, don't do that in front of your sister." The mother said sternly at Jack, waving smoke away from her face.**_

_**Jack muttered indistinctly and went outside.**_

"_**Goodnight, baby." She kissed little Lydia goodnight and went to the door.**_

"_**WAIT! Mommy tell me that story again."**_

"_**The one about your great great grandmother?"**_

"_**DUH!" said the 'innocent' child under the blankets.**_

_**The mother sat down on the bed again and recited the story, as if she were there when it happened:**_

"_**Katherine Barlow was a schoolteacher. She lived in a town next to a lake near the desert.**_

_**One day, she fell in love with a man named Sam. But she couldn't tell anyone about it because Sam was not allowed to have anything to do with her."**_

"_**WHY?" interrupted mini-Lydia.**_

"_**Because Sam was not respected and considered equal to other peopleat that time, baby."**_

"_**But one day, Katherine found herself kissing Sam, the Onion Picker in her very own schoolhouse. What she didn't know, was that Trout Walker, who's father owned the town and the lake, saw them kissing through the window…"**_

"_**Oh no!" said the girl, as if she was hearing this for the first time.**_

"_**Walker became jealous, so he burned down Katherine's schoolhouse and shot Sam on his boat..**_

"_**Katherine was so heartbroken and hurt by how everyone in the town had turned against her, that she changed completely.**_

_**She went back to the schoolhouse and shot the Sheriff, leaving no trace of herself but a red kiss-mark on his forehead.**_

_**Your great great grandmother became one of the most wanted people after that. She even stole from one of the richest people around back then. Someone named Yelnats.**_

_**After that she was never seen or heard from again."**_

"_**Well after that, it turned out that Kissin' Kate Barlowe had a son, which she had raised alone. When she died, Bill Barlowe decided to start a new life. So he began a family, and one of his children moved to the Middle East, right here in Ras Al Khaima. He is now your grandfather."**_

"**_BORING!" she said loudly._**

**_"GOO'NIGHT, Ma!"_**

"'**_Night, baby."_**

_**CLICK. The lights went off.**_

/A.N.: Questions? Comments?Anywayzzzzzz…..Things aren't really happening yet. For the love of fluffy ducks, it's only chappie three!

Enjoy.


	3. The New Guy

**A.N.: Come... come to the dark side, my little children... WE HAVE COOKIES!**

* * *

BANG! Went the judge's wooden mallet.

The judge squinted at the file before him. He pursed his winkled face and his mouth formed an "o".

"Lay—Lied-ia..." He straightened up in his seat and announced to the whole world:

"Lydia Barlowe, you are charged for the smuggling of prohibited, illegal drugs. How do you plead?"

"I... sorry?"

"You have no guardian, no lawyer, so you will be put into custody by a government institution, and then into an _orphanage_."

"But-"

He slammed his mallet down.

"You are not to talk back to the Judge in this courtroom, do you hear me, lil' girl?"

_Lil' girl?_

He didn't give me a chance to answer:

"I could send you to jail, and I would not loose one bit of sleep over it. I don't know what good that would do."

_Whatever, asshole. Just tell me where you're going to throw me away._

"However, there is currently- "

"Excuse me, mister," I interrupted very, very politely, "What do you do in Camp Greenjake?"

"Greenlake." The judge corrected. "You dig holes everyday."

_I see..._

The judge cleared his throat again and continued, "There is currently a vacancy at camp Greenlake. They have troubled youth build character. Camp Greenlake or Jail."

"Jail," I said.

The judge's face dopped.

"Why does everyone pick jail? I just don't get it!"

"Maybe they know it's too good to be true," I shrugged

**BANG! **"Enough of this!" The judge grumbled whilst holding his shiny, grumpy mallet.

"You are going to the camp and that's that."

"Okay then."

**BANG**! Went the judge's mallet for the last time.

_**-SQUID'S POV-**_

_A glimpse of what goes on in the mind swirled with a spoonful of ADHD_

"Man, you got it all wrong." Armpit said as he walked beside me and X-Ray. "Man, if you go to sleep and you die, how the hell are you supposed to wake up DEAD?"

"Listen," said X-Ray,  
"If you, like, sleep and then you die, then the morning comes. THAT MEANS YOU WAKE UP DEAD…What do you do in the mornin' when you go to sleep at night? You wake up! Therefore the matter of waking up dead!"

"Man, that's deeeeep." I said, nodding, amazed at X-Ray's amazing thinking qualities.

"X-Ray. You're so smart."

X-Ray is never wrong about anything.

Armpit yawned and stretched, raising his arms up high in the air. The smell from his underarms made me want to bitchslap the stench out of him.

_How does his mother stand him?..._I wondered

"Whatchoo say about my momma?" said a very offended Armpit.

_Did he hear what I was thinking?_

"Hey, look! A rainbow!" he suddenly shouted.

_Huh_?

_How did he hear me? _I wondered.

"I got good ears." Armpit smirked.

I vowed never to think out loud near Armpit again.

We went on and on about wakin' up dead or sleeping alive…I wasn't really paying attention. I was probably the only one who noticed the yellow bus pull over beside Mr. Sir's 'Doghouse'.

"Yo, X-Ray," I whispered in a low voice so Armpit couldn't hear, "We got a new guy today."

"Man, I hate new guys!" Armpit complained, and then started nagging about jock straps and something or other.

We decided to go and find out. Mom told us were gonna have an 8th person in our happy little community of D-tent Diligents.

I saw Mom commin' towards us with a skinny guy wearing a red baseball cap and girly blue jeans.

The weird thing was that the New Guy kinda looked like a...

"Dude, the new guy kinda looks like a girl!" I observed.

_Did X-Ray just roll his eyes at me?_

Mom started explaining stuff about the new guy, but I wasn't paying attention.

I just kept staring ahead. I couldn't really concentrate.

My momma once took me to the doctor and he told me I had ADHD. I still don't really know what that is...but I hope it's not contagious...

I snapped back into reality and I realized something about the new guy;

"Dude, the new guy kinds looks like a girl!"

* * *

Well, it turned out that the new guy WAS a girl…just in guy clothes.

A girl.

_Don't get me wrong, but isn't this a boy's camp? _I contemplated

"Hey, isn't this a boy's camp?" I asked Armpit.

"I heard you the first time,"Armpit replied, which scared me.

"Mom told me she became an American in passport only a few hours before she was arrested. And there really wasn't anywhere she had good enough files to go to 'sept this dump."

"I heard they are making this a co-ed camp," Zigzag chimed in, "The Warden needs more people to dig them holes. I TOLD you there is something weird buried under here!" he cried hysterically. His eyes widened as he came to a revelation,

"Maybe it's treasure!"

_Pffft...Who the hell would bury treasure here? _

"What's she in for?"

"Dunno," X-Ray shrugged, "Mom told us we had to ask her to find out...-coughwhataQuackcough-."

We were all in the tent, too lazy to go to the Rec Room. Magnet, Caveman, Zero, and ZigZag came to join us… to do nothing.

'Nothing' is fun. We can do all sorts of stuff with Nothing.

The tent flapped open and there was this lil' girl, hugging her duffel-bag so close to herself as if someone was going to run up to her and snatch it.

Her big eyes were darting around here and there, I swear to the cotton candy up in the sky that they were gonna pop out of her head.

For a long time she just stood there, stiff as a board, not moving anything but her scared, darting eyes.

_Like those stick-on eyes that you put on cheap dolls..._

The New Guy refused to step an inch closer to us, for fear of the black plague, or just the God forsaken cooties...

_She's prob'ly scared of Armpit's killer stench._

I big hand slapped me in the back of the head. I didn't have to turn around to know who had done that.

She was wearing gloves. Gloves in the middle of a hot Texas summer.

_She's probably one of those 'Germinate' people._

"Germaphobic." Armpit corrected.

_Stop that, foo' !_

Armpit shrugged.

"I'm Magnet," he said quietly and slowly, as if talking to a small child, "That's Zigzag, Armpit, X-Ray, Squid, Caveman, and the guy beside him is Zero."

"I'm…I'm Madonna" she said ever so timidly.

"No, you're not," scoffed ZigZag, crossing his skinny arms.

"Yes it is! My name is Madonna."

"No, it's not."

"Yes it is."

"Naw"

"Yaw."

"Non."

"Oui"

"No."

"Si."

"Niet."

"Dah."

"Umm...No."

"Yes it is. Don't question me!" Her innocence was taken over by what could only be described as THE DEVIL.

"I'm... I'm Lydia Barlow. " It was like her name was something that disgusted her terribly when she said it.

Things became very quiet and we didn't know what to say.

"Are you the Warden's adopted daughter? Did you come here to choose three boys to kidnap and perform top secret government experiments on?" ZigZag broke the silence.

X-Ray "_pshawed_" Zigzag's utter idiocy, but we all still leaned towards the new guy to know what she would answer.

"Why?" She inquired.

"Coz you look kind of weird..." Zigzag twitched impulsively and walked slowly away, twirling a strand of his electric hair absentmindedly.

"Well, that's nice..." she forced a smile, but it looked kind of wobbly because it was forced.

"You know, guys, we should call her Suicide." X-Ray said.

"WHY?" the New Guy whined in a droning way. She looked incredibly disappointed.

"Because that's what you're going to cause Zigzag to do."

"Lil' girl," I began, "don't be so worried about this guy. He suffers from-"

"Acute Paranoia," she interrupted. "I already know. I read 'Holes'."

"What's the book about?" asked Zigzag.

"Vampires." she answered.

"Really?"

"No."

And I _really_ had to go to the bathroom...

"Lil' Girl," ZigZag declared, "You are one of the weirdest people I ever did see."

_Bathroom! Bathroom! BATHROOOOOOM!_

Many people rolled their eyes at this...the only thought in my mind was if I could make it out alive without peeing in my pants.

_Please leave, New Guy...Or my bladder will implode itself..._

She scratched her eyebrow with her tiny gloved hand and looked at us as if she were accepting some new house she'd just bought. It looked kind of like those old-fashioned China Doll smiles. I guess she wasn't used to maintaining that facial expression.

_...Bathroom!_

I was wiggling around in place in desperate need of the "facilities". I attracted attention by my compulsive squirming.

The New Guy was looking at me like I was retarded.

Then she smiled exaggeratingly, which was very scary, and I literally almost peed in my pants.

"I'm going to the bathroom..." she said.

"I SHALL INTRODUCE THEE TO THE TOILETS! FOLLOW ME!" I exploded.

She didn't move.

"NOW, PLEASE!"

The New Guy looked scared and her dark eyes went wide,

"Please don't kill me!"

She ran away.

Instead of running after her, I quickly bolted for the toilets as if it was a matter of life or death.

**/A.N.: There once was a hopeless little author wrote about a girl who swore a lot and knew no English. One day she relized that after three days she recieved no reviews.**

**But, like in Peter Pan, when someone says they don't believe in fairies. One of them drops down dead. (shocked gasp)**

**If no one reviews, the story will just end up being a _Girl-Goes-To-Camp-Greenlake _thingy…and my story will drop down dead. X.x**

**AND THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS: REVIEW!**


	4. Wide Awake

**-the NEW GUY'S POV.-**

Holy fashizzle manizzle dafizzle moshiffle!

There are no girls in this camp! I am going to be raped and killed and buried in one of those revolting holes!

I felt like crying. But of course I couldn't because my eyes were too messed up and full of dust, and blinded by extreme light to do anything right now.

I walked those fifteen steps ALONE to an unsightly structure with a sign saying: 'D-Tent.'

I opened the flap to be welcomed by shocked faces of…what else but…boys. My body froze into stone and all I was expecting was a thunderbolt to befall upon my skull and kill me…

There was a suspicious-looking tall boy with blond hair that might as well have electrical currents running through it… He was known by his tribe as ZigZag.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, and turned around, only for my face to be inches apart with some boy with caterpillar eyebrows and a toothpick in his mouth.

"Hey... hey new guy... I gotta ask you a question."

"Does it have anything to do with cars?"

"No?"

"Does it, in any way, refer to a moving vehicle?"

"No."

"You may ask."

"Is it true?" asked the toothpick boy, looking into my eyes with disbelief.

"Is _what_ true?"

He looked uncomfortable... "That... you know... you don't have a penis."

I coughed and choked on my own tongue.

"NO I DON'T HAVE A PENIS." I said, trying very hard to stay calm and collected.

The boy snickered.

"So what happened? It fell off?"

The boys laughed harder.

Squid snickered louder, and I could tell some of the boys were listening, though they tried hard to look like they were doing something productive, like picking lint from their belly buttons.

"So, like, you're a chick?"

"Just a chick, no dick."

Squid laughed again, even more stupidly. "Hey, dude, that rhymes! Haw haw haw!"

I walked over to my vomit-infested cot, and covered my face with the pillow.

Right after that my eyes just drifted into sandy-land.

_How did I end up here? I scanned my surroundings…_

_It was all desert._

_Alone._

_I have to get back to camp!_

_I turned around and around but there was no camp to be seen. I was lost._

"_Helooooooooooooo!" I shouted._

_A tumbleweed passed by._

_I felt scared, alone._

_Suddenly I saw something in the distance. At first, it was just a moving cloud of dust. As it neared, I realized it was a herd of horses!_

"_Yeeehaw!" came a voice from one of the horses._

_I recognized them._

_It was Kissing Kate Barlowe, my great great grandmother and her gang. They were running away from the town deputies._

_Suddenly her face displayed a look of surprise as she spotted me standing in the middle of the desert. She extended her arm from the horse and reached out to grab me._

_While the horse was moving, I was pulled onto it, which I thought was pretty cool._

"_WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE IN THE MIDDLE OF GREENLAKE DESERT?" she fired. "I thought I made sure you were\safe... safe from **them**."?_

_Them?_

"_I don't know... I'm—"_

_But she didn't let me finish: "I have to show you something…" _she said

_Suddenly Kissin' Kate's gang was gone and we were alone. And then countless o f 5-foot holes opened on the ground before me. One had a big rock next to it. That's where she stopped the horse._

_The rock looked like Mr. Sir if you squinted and tilted your head._

_We both got off._

_She took a shovel from out of nowhere and handed it to me._

"_Dig." She ordered, her voice firm and monotone._

"_But I don't-"_

"_DIG!"_

_I jumped into the hole with the rock next to it and did as she ordered. I felt as if I had been dogging forever, yet I didn't feel tired._

_Suddenly my shovel hit something hard, and hollow. I dug some more and unearthed a medium-sized wooden chest. There were faded letters on itengraved with the words; "STANLEY YELNATS."_

_I turned to my great great grandmother. "Is this what you wanted me to find?"_

_She nodded, but then, again, she said:_

"_Dig."_

"_But I found the-"_

"_DIG!" she commanded._

"_You don't have to be so bossy…God!"_

_I went on digging. And I decided to break into song:_

"_I'VE BEEN WORKIN' ON THE RAAAAIIILROAD-"_

"_No singing!" _

_Again, my shovel hit something hard and hollow._

_I eagerly turned to the ghost-with-the-cowboy-hat and pointed out:_

"_Look!" I screamed with glee, "Look! I found it! Whatever it is!"_

_Kissin' Kate just stood there next to her horse, not saying a world._

Suddenly a loud, hollow noise made me sit up suddenly.

**Dr. Pendanski** was in the tent, banging what looked like a kitchen pan with a wooden spoon.

The trumpet was broken and he used the pan to improvise.

"Rise and Shine!" he repeated, " New Day, New Hole."

Groans, murmuring and swearing wafted their ways from under everyone else's covers.

I was dreaming.

I opened my inactive, groggy eyes to see that it was still dark outside.

It was 4:30 A.M.

Then I felt myself drift to sleep again.

The next thing I heard was;

"You wake her up." said a voice

"YOU wake her up." said another.

"Awww! Oh look! She's drooling!"

The boys all squealed lighly and described the utter cuteness of my drool.

"Maybe we should check and pull her face to make sure its not a mask or somethin'... You know, in case she really IS a spy." ZigZag said shakily.

_That's it, I'm moving!_

I abruptly shot up.

"What time is it?" I panicked.

"Better get ready, lil' girl." Squid said loudly.

"First hole's the hardest"

_Hole? WHAT?_

"You'll see" Armpit nodded, as if reading my thoughts.


	5. RAWR!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Holes. I own the social outcast you will read about here who's name no one can get right.**

**Thank you**

* * *

I waited for all my new tent-mates to leave before I got changed.

The revolting orange jumpsuits ended up being really comfy. When I finished, I opened the flap of the tent and greeted the VERY VERY dark morning with a yawn.

I bumped into Magnet in front of the entrance. Maybe that was ZigZag…No, no….Caveman. Crap, I don't care.

"Oof!"

I seem to be doing that a lot now.

"Sorry." Magnet laughed and rubbed his forehead, which I ran into.

"I'll show you around."

"But **Squid's** my mentor." I said, trying to see if it would get on his nerves.

"Squid can't even mentor his doe-rag if you asked him to, man."

_What's a doe-rag?_

"It's like some cloth thing you put on your head to make you look like a gangsta." said Armpit, surprising me from behind.

How did you know what I was-?

"I got good ears."

"Girlies, HERE! NOW!" barked the familiar Dogface.

All the A,B,C & D tent members lined up in front of a rusty cupboard outside labeled, **"LIBRARY."**

Oh, Goody! We're all going to read books!

"Not books, lil' girl," said the very creepy Armpit.

"I never said anything." I said, surprised, and a little bit scared.

Armpit shrugged.

It turned out the library was a "wardrobe" of shovels. I was getting more and more confused.

We all ended up in the desert outside the camp.

"Dig here. If you find anything interesting, you are to report it to me or the warden." Mr. Sir pointed to an area on the dirt.

"Yes, ."

I began digging, and so had everyone else.

Breakfast was a slab of bread with something sticky and not from this world.

Dig.

I began to detest the world and the very existence of it as I pushed my shovel into the dirt.

It became a pattern:

shove, dig, lift, throw…. Shove dig, lift, throw. SHOVE. DIG. LIFT. THROW…SHOVE. DIG. LIFT. THROW… SHOVE! DIG! LIFT! THROW!…..

STOP IT!

"THIS INSANITY IS DRIVING ME MAD! " I screamed and pulled at my hair.

Most of the boys dropped their shovels and gawked at the innocent little girl running around her hole and screaming at the top of her lungs, looking like she was doing some kind of evil rain dance.

Suddenly I felt someone behind me put their arms around my waist. I jumped in shock and began kicking and screaming and crying the waterworks.

" It's o.k. lil' girl." said Squid. "You'll get used to this. It'll soon be a regular habit, digging holes."

He was trying to calm me down from kicking and screaming, which wasn't really working.

He talked to me as if I was a 4-year old.

"And then when you finish diggin' your hole you can come widdus to the Rec Room and we'll teach you how to play pool."

"I DON'T WANT TO PLAY POOL!"

"I WANT TO GO HOME AND (-sniff-) MURDER MY BROTHER! I WANNA KILL HIM! I WANNA KILL….I wanna… I wanna…I…"

Suddenly my knees felt very weak. They began shaking and I let myself crumble to the ground.

I felt Squid trying to hold me up, speaking nervously,

"Lil' Girl! Lil' Girl I'm gonna go get Mom, okay! Lil' Girl…."

I heard other people run towards me and nervously speaking gibberish.

My vision blurred, then blackness covered my entire consciousness.

The only good thing that came of this was that I had the rest of the day off... thanks to my nervous breakdown.

* * *

**/A.N../**

**-FLIGHT ATTENDANT WALKS UP-:  
****If you likethe Author'spointless story, please click on the purple button on the corner of the screen and comment on it. If you DON'T like the story, press on the purple button anyway and write how much you hate it and what she needs to improve.**

* * *

_That Squid guy is looking into space again. _

_Hey, slap his face and see what happens! Hee hee haw haw hee ho ha!_

"Since when did I have voices in my head?" I asked aloud.

"Who're you tawkin' to?" asked ZigZag who surprised me from behind.

"I didn't say anything." I said quickly.

"No really. Were you talking to government headquarters?"

"I summoned all of my psychic ancestors to whisper my next move onto destroying the Earth."

"I KNEW IT!" Zigzag began jabbing his pointer finger in my direction and screaming, "I KNEW THERE WAS SOMETHING STRANGE ABOUT YOU!"

_MEMO: Do not use sarcasm in front of boys. _

"Drugs, eh? How did an innocent little cordero like you end up taking drugs?" Magnet suddenly mentioned.

"How did you know what I was charged for?" I demanded.

"Squid read your file when the Warden came out of her office." Caveman said.

"I didn't _use_ any of the drugs… I'm not a _moron_…"

Squid scowled.

"There's nothing wrong with a little Weedy every now and then," he said defensively, then returned to staring into space.

"A guy offered me a hundred dollars and threatened me at gunpoint to pass this plastic bag of cocaine to another guy. I got caught in the process and I didn't get my hundred dollars.

"Poor muñeca! You don't belong here with us dangerous delinquents."

Magnet roughly slung his left arm around my shoulder...

I didn't like to be touched. No, really. I don't know what the hell is wrong with me.

I froze up and I couldn't move. Magnet noticed my tension and removed his arm off of my shoulder. Suddenly I was relaxed again.

Magnet paused, put his arm around my shoulder, and watched me tense up yet again.

He took his arm off ... Me-relaxed

Arm on. Frozen.

Arm off. Relaxed.

Arm on.

Off.

On.

Off.

He seemed to be amused by my strange phobia and did this a couple of times.

"Man, look what you're doin' to her!" Squid scolded the very bad Magnet. "She looks like you threw her off a fucking machanical bull."

Magnet scowled.

"Sorry muñeca…" he slung his arm off and I was too messed up to even glare at him.

"Why do you do that?" he asked me, smiling and still sounding amused by the little girl who doesn't like to be touched.

Something in my head snapped.

I turned my head slowly to face Magnet, unintentionally looking like a possessed Chucky doll with neck problems.

"**_RAWR!"_** I gave my jungle cat cry of war and pounced upon Magnet, who had curled up in a ball and began wimpering.

"DIE!"

"OH MY **GOD **SHE'S A HUMAN ANIMAL HYBRID! EVERYBODY RUNN I'VE SEEN THIS BEFORE" Zigzag cried as if someone was being slaughtered in front of him.

Caveman finally scuttled over and pulled me up with just his two giant fingers and dropped me on his cot like I was a wet towel.

The boys all froze and stared at me. I sat pleasantly on the cot and smiled sweetly at them as if nothing had happened. And there I stayed, with a frozen smile so fixed on my face resembling a wax figure.

Zigzag leaned over and wispered to Caveman's ear, staring down at me with his frightened eyes...  
"Should we touch it?"

Slowly, slowly he walked over to my wax-like self and poked me in the forehead.

I didn't budge.

He lifted his index finger again and poked my eye..

**"_RAWR_!"**

* * *

**_ONE HOUR AND THREE "RAWRS" LATER..._**

Suddenly the lights went out it became very dark…and scary.

From the outside, an even scarier voice could be heard:

"Lights out!" said Smokey the Bear just outside the tent.

_Fresh air..._

I stepped out of the tent to be greeted by another collision with someone.

"Oof!"

It was Smokey.

"Ah! There you are, Julia!"

_Get my name wrong again and I swear I'll-_

"Your changing stall is just behind your tent."

_I have a tent?_

"I have a tent?"

He pointed to a delicate-looking tent connected by a small doorway to D-tent.

_Yippy Skippy._


	6. Armpit's Temper

7

The Warden best decided that a young lady such as myself (a-thank you) is best suited in her own tent.

So I got the cheapest looking piece if shit they could find.

A blanket draped over some pegs to look like a tent.

This "tent" of mine was connected to D-tent. So basically these sex-driven males were right next door.

This was to be my home for twelve months.

The interior of my own private residence was all silvery and cheap-looking. There were two portable lamps on the floor.

There was a brand new cot and some sort of demented cupboard thingy beside it.

I went back to D-tent to get my bag.

Most people were asleep. Some had flashlights-

_Where did they get flashlights?_

-and some were still sitting on their cots playing cards.

I went to my old cot and picked up my bag.

"You're plannin' to run away already?" asked one of them.

"Yes." I said in an even, quiet tone. "I'm running away to that hole in the back of D-Tent that none of us seemed to have noticed."

They all looked at the back of the tent. Sure enough there was a flap that obviously led to my private, beloved, happy little residence.

"Night muñeca." said a familiar voice

"Goodnight...emm... cocina." I replied

"COCINA? You jus' called me a **kitchen**." Magnet said.

"Oh, so THAT'S what it means."

"Goodnight," he repeated.

"Goodnight, Lydia." Came Caveman's voice from somewhere in the dark tent.

-"Goodnight lil' girl."

-"'Night kid."

-(mumblemumble) _TRANSLATION: goodnight._

-"G'night lil' gal."

-"Don't let the bedbugs bite…. Or aliens kidnap you either."

I slipped into my tent and into a pair of shorts and a loose shirt.

I crawled into my new bed-I mean cot, and pulled the covers up over my head, even though it was unbearably hot.

(I was scared a demon would creep into my room, so I always covered my face.))

"Goodnight." I whispered.

And my head dropped heavily to the pillow.

* * *

"Rise and Shine!" Annoying-Safari-Man-Pendanski banged the wooden spoon loudly on a kitchen pot. "New Day, New Hole!"

I stirred under the covers.

_Kill Safari-Man…kill…kill…_

Suddenly I heard something rustling at the entrance of my tent and step into my private dominion.

_Oh No! The extraterrestrials HAVE come to take me to their planet! _screamed my frightened paranoia.

My hand shot out of the covers, trying to find something on the crate that would serve as an appropriate weapon.

Aha! My hands fumbled upon deodorant spray.

I jumped out of the covers clutching my prized weapon in my hand.

I saw a shadow move in the dark and I dived for it…

"DIE, ALIEN SCUM ! DIEEEE!"

"Ow! Dammit! OW!"

It was X-Ray.

I wished it WAS an alien.

_Oopsies._

I dropped thedeodorant,and switched on one of the portable lamps.

"Me is sorry." I stuttered

"Jesus Christ , lil' girl! What are you trying to do to me?"

"Me is sorry."

"Get your jumper-thingy on. Mom told me to come wake you up."

"Umm... Me is sorry."

He disappeared behind the flap of the tent. Ipulled onthe orange-jumpsuit-from-hell and rushed outside.

I still wasn't used to the damn dark mornings.

I went to the water spigot (_spigot-tee hee. FUNNY WORD! Weeeeeee!)_

-sigh-

"Lil' Girl! Ova' here!" I heard Armpit_. (tee hee! ARMPIT! Another funny word!)_

We had tortillas… again and we lined up in front of the Library…again.

Mr. Dogface opened the shovel-cupboard-thingy and we each took one.

Then I noticed a shovel with a strip of red tape around the handle.

_Ooooh! Pretty red ribbon. _

_SHOVEL! MINE!_

I grabbed for the shovel with the pretty red tape around it.

Suddenly X-Ray popped up beside me, scaring me out of my shoes.

"Um…lil' girl…" He looked nervous.

"Yeah?" I turned to face him. He seemed to be looking at my pretty, pretty shovel.

"Um…Uh." He kept looking at the shovel. "(EHEM)… You see, lil' girl…"

He ended up not knowing what to say and he snapped his head around to face Mr. Sir.

_Awwwwwwww! Poor X-Ray didn't get his shovel? What's so special about it, anyways?_

"It's shorter than the other shovels." Armpit surprised me from behind.

_How did you know-_

"Hey, does my head look big?" he suddenly asked.

"Not at all!" I fawned. "It's actually about the same size of your dick."

He frowned.

I began thinking about random things as we walked to our digging spot.

_OLD MACDONALD HAD A FARM…EEEEIIIIEEEEIIIIOOOOOOOO!_

"Lil' girl, your singin' is givin' me a headache." Armpit snapped.

_AHA! SO YOU CAN HEAR WHAT I'M THINKING!_

"No I can't." Armpit muttered.

_Whatever, Underarm._

"IT'S ARMPIT!"

I tried to ignore the frightened stares of the other boys as they overheard our intriguing conversation.

**/A.N.: I'm kindd of running out of details to put in the story…but I still have a plan for the climax of this fanfic in later chapters.**

**If you have any ideas, please share them. I will not only bow to you a thousand times, but I will also give you a cookie.**


	7. Just The Beginning

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own "Holes" except for the ones my dog made in the park today.**

* * *

9

Dig.

The word began to repeat itself into my head as Mr. Dogface began telling each of us where to dig.

He pointed to me, snapped his fingers, and then pointed to the ground.

"Dig here. No more crazy outbursts. Ya hear?" He spat a seed shell onto the cracked ground.

_...Pick up that damn seed shell and stuff it up your doggy ass._

"Yes, Mr. Sir."

Dig.

The pattern surfaced itself into my head again: shove, dig, lift, and throw.

I began automatically digging and started thinking about random things again.

_Why do round pizzas come in square boxes?_

Before I knew it, I had finished a foot and a half of my hole.

_Hey! This random stuff really works!_

_Let's see:_ _If you're name was Mr. Crunch and you joined the navy, could you eventually be called Captain Crunch?_

I seemed to have been thinking about that for a long time because when I looked down I had finished more than two feet of the hole!

_I shall give Randomness a cookie and a golden star._

_Why do people call it an ATM machine, if they're really saying Automated Teller Machine Machine?"_

I sadly got bored of random things, and my mind went back to the monotonous digging pattern: shove, dig, lift, throw.

The other boys seemed to have the rhythmic digging pattern in their heads also.

Caveman was digging a hole beside me. He seemed to have been digging at the same small spot several times now. He bent over his hole and disappeared for a moment. Then he stood up again, with something in his hand.

"Hey, Cavie, what'cha got there?" I asked loudly enough for everyone to hear.

He held it up for me to see: It was some sort of tubey thingy.

Everyone gathered around and observed the tiny trinket.

"It's a shotgun shell."

"Naw, man, it's too skinny to be a shotgun shell."

There was a heart and the initials "K.B." engraved on it.

Bossy X-Ray seemed to have made a "deal" with Caveman. X took the tubie-thinger and showed it to Safari Man the next day. X ended up taking the day off instead of poor old Caveman.

_This guy has more of a social problem that I do._

I felt sorry for the fat tub of nothing but 'looser'. Really. For God's sakes!

_Something must be done! Exterminate X! Exterminate him, I say!_

I walked up to him as he walked past everyone with his head down.

"Take it back from him."

"What?" He looked up at my face, trying to smile.

"Rip the tube back from the fucking shitface." I nodded happily.

_DIDN'T I TELL YOU TO STOP FUCKING SWEAR? _

"Naw! I can't do that! He's the boss! He's…he's X-Ray! Plus they gave me a nickname already…he's counting on me."

_Pathetic._

"WHAT?" Caveman blinked several times, a look of shock and awe at me.

"Did I say that out loud?"

"I think so, lil' mouse."

_Quick! Think of something random!_

"Hey, isn't that weird that "K.B." stands for Kate Barlow-oh yeah, you don't know who she-"

His curly locks swished as his head abruptly turned my direction.

"Kissin' Kate Barlow?" He gasped.

It was my turn to blink continuously. "Yes."

"Hey, isn't your last name Barlow?" he said, squinting at me.

…_Oh my God..._

"Yes."

(silence)

_Holy shit._

A sudden explosion of someone's voice in the distance made us both jump out of our skins.

"OH MY FUCKING G-OH SHIT...OH MY GOD...SOMEBODY! SOMEBODY! COME QUICK! SOMETHIN'S WRONG WITH ZIGZAG!"

We both exchanged frightened glances and ran towards the sound of increasing panic.


	8. The Exodus Of Sanity

I ran and ran and ran. Pretty soon I arrived at the place where all the horrendous screaming was coming from.

My heart just sunk into the ground.

There was a crowd of apprehensive boys gathered around a figure on the ground.

He was slithering, writhing, jolting on the sand, smudging his sickly orange jumper with white dust.

ZigZag. He was screaming gibberish... some sort of agonizing gibberish.

It was like he was being electrocuted. He tried to get up, and then it was as if some uknown force smashed his back, and he crumbled onto the dry sand over and over.

On his knees, he again tried to get to his feet. Then, as if someone was there, pushed him onto the ground with a loud THUD.

The meager ZigZag looked like _someone_ was beating him up (or some_thing_), screaming, and screaming:

"**OH MY GOD! I SWEAR I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING"** he was crawling around, trying to get up.

"Somebody go get Mom!"

"**PLEASE! I DIDN'T MEAN----" **

ZigZag was talking…_to someone_. Screaming to someone more like it.

"I think he's having a seizure."

"**I'M SORRY! I DIDN'T KNOW-------"**

"ZigZag has epilepsy?"

"**I DON'T KNOW WHO OR WHERE SHE IS! PLEASE, DON'T-----"**

"Man, this is some scary shit."

"**LEAVE …ME… ALONE!" **

ZigZag turned his now bruised and cut-up head towards my direction and his face made cold electricity strangle my neck.

_Why isn't anyone doing anything, God Dammit! _

I turned and ran. Ran towards the already-notified-Mr. Sir who was scurrying towards the place I just came from.

_Scary. Scary. Scary. Scary. Scary. Scarrrryyy……_

"MR. Sir! Mr. Sir! Something's wrong with ZigZag!" I yelled like a small child.

He ignored me and sprinted (_or what looked like a dog/duck waddle_) towards the crazed ZigZag.

Mr. Sir made sweeping gestures, motioning for two other camp counselors with a stretcher to hurry up.

The crowd of boys parted as the counselors picked defenseless ZigZag up and plopped him down onto the stretcher.

Then after that, ZigZag was gone.

Not dead, but I mean he wasn't there anymore. A synonym for _"gone"_ can be ABSENT, or MISSING, etc.

Gone.

The rest of the day was quiet. It went by as slowly as a heavy cloud over our heads, not moving away.

D-tent didn't hog the pool table, so other tent members were fighting for who would use it.

Seven boys, including Zero, whom I haven't mentioned the whole time, sat on the big, worn sofa by the T.V.

I sat and watched the broken T.V... Alone… By myself, without ZigZag to laugh at the non-existent T.V. sitcoms, without ZigZag to subconsciously remind me it was o.k. to be weird.

It had only been two weeks, but I felt as if my new found friends had become the closest people to me.

Just watching the blank T.V. screen. Watching….watching...

_God, shut up, Drama Queen!_

"Hey people."

It was ZigZag.

Everyone in D-tent, even Zero, stood up and bunched around the now-chippy-looking ZigZag.

"Dawg! You really scared us!"

"Yeah, man, you really scared us!"

"What the fuck happened to you?"

"Man! You should have seen yourself there!"

"Pies!"

I broke through the eager cluster of friends to see if that was _really_ ZigZag or just his dead corpse inhabited by a slimy, green, demon alien.

He was smiling… well….until he saw me. His expression turned solemn.

_Uh oh._

"I guess **_I_** was the one who got possessed by the alien, not you." he said, almost maliciously.

-

We all retrieved to our tents.

I felt strangely too ashamed to join them, so I headed directly towards my _own_ tent.

I changed and quickly went to sleep. Something was wrong. Very wrong. I could feel it, **eating** at my conscience.

_Ow, that hurts._

"What hurts?"

_The thing that's eating me._

"Are you my conscience?"

No answer.

I turned the lights off.

(silence)

Suddenly I heard the tent flap open.

_The ALIENS! They've come for me, now!_

I froze.

(more rustling)

"Lil' girl?"

Aha!

"ZigZag?"

"I had to wait 'til everyone was asleep. I have something very important to tell you."

_You've come to say that the aliens have their brain-sucking machine ready and are here to take me to their space ship. _I guessed.

"Well I guess I knew this time would come... just let me say goodbye to my earthfriends first." I said defeatedly.

I was surprised by ZigZag's answer.

"Lil mouse, do you know anything about a person named Barlow?"

_No aliens? _(pouted face)

"That's my last name: Barlow."

ZigZag gasped and I could very slightly hear soap opera music in the background as he did it.

"HOLY SHIT! You're _her_!"

"I'm who?"

"You're the girl they're after!"

"What do you mean? You're scaring me a little, my tree-haired friend."

I imagined him pointing at me accusingly in the dark.

"Turn the lamp on!" he demanded.

I hesitated.

"TURN IT ON!"

My fingers fumbled over the switch. There was a flicker, and then the tent was illuminated by a weak light.

ZigZag looked like he had just survived a tornado, especially his hair.

"Lil' Girl, did anything strange happen since you were in the camp?"

"Well….a string of funny things have happened ever since I came to this country."

"What's your full name?"

"Lydia Katherine William Alexander Samuel Barlowe." I replied. "Each middle name is the first name of my ancestors."

"One of those names is really important, lil' girl… which name is the oldest?"

"Katherine." I answered.

"She was the most famous ancestor. She was known as---"

"---The murderous criminal." ZigZag growled.

"I was going to say "Kissin' Kate Barlowe."

"There used to be a town here, you know." he said in a spooky tone.

"Town Greenlake?" I snorted, "What a stupid name."

Zigzag ignored me.

"Yes. There really WAS a genuine lake here. It was owned by the Warden's great grandfather. He owned the lake and half the town."

"Is the warden's last name "Walker", by any chance?" I asked.

"Uh…yeah."

_Interesting._

Kate Barlow's life, as my family had told me many times before, was ruined by a man called "Walker".

We both sat down on either side of the flourescent lamp.

"This Kissin' lady, well she fell in love with someone called "Onion Sam." But he was black, and she was white. Man, they loved each other a lot, but Sam and that lady were afraid…." he explained.

"One day, they were caught kissing in a schoolhouse and that's when things went wrong---"

"I already know the story. It's a family tradition to pass it on… I just didn't realize... I'M HERE IN MY GREAT-GREAT GRANDMOTHER'S OLD TOWN!...COOL!"

"SHSHHHHHH!" he hissed. "you don't want anyone to wake up, do you?"

"This is getting so weird, ZigZag… I'm actually kind of…scared."

"It's not a coincidence lil' girl."

"It has to be."

"It's not a coincidence." he repeated, monotone.

I squinted at him.

"Who told you this, ZigZag? Pendanski?"

"HELL NO! This camp didn't tell us NUTHIN!"

"Then who?"

He just sat there.

"ZigZag, tell me who told you this story. Tell me who asked you about me…"

"You have to believe me. I may be paranoid, but I'm not crazy."

_Isn't that the same thing?_

"Tell me... who fucking told you this?"

He inhaled deeply.

"_They_ did."

I shook my head.

"Make sense, you time wasting baboon!"

"I MEAN…_they_ told me all the things I'm telling you now."

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" I became impatient.

"Today. They came and whispered into my ear."

"THEY DID MORE THAN WHISPER, BOY! I SAW YOU TODAY! YOU WERE POSESSED!"

"…They got… impatient when I didn't respond immediately."

I sighed.

"I guess you were the only one sane enough for them to talk to." I smiled.

He laughed. The poor boy thought it was funny when I called him "sane".

_That's just sad._

I yawned loudly...

ZigZag for once since I'd met him, looked at me with real pity. and then something in his eyes forshadowed that after this moment, things would never be the same ever agai.n.

And they weren't

"Night, lil' girlie." he shifted around and eventually stood up.

"Get out of my tent," I said sleepily.

"Don't you want a hug?" he asked like a little boy who was leaving his mother to go to school.

"Do you want a concussion?"

"Like I said, goodnight, Mouse." he said quickly and ran out of my tent.

_Mouse?_

-

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-

**/A.N.: Ce chapitre est fini.**

**I don't know why, but I just like putting crazy people in my story.**


	9. The Warden's New Plan

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!**

I was beginning to REALLY hate that damn kitchen pot and wooden spoon.

"Rise And Shine! New Day, New Hole!"

Someone from the boys' tent: -- "Dammit, man! Shuddup!"

----------**BREAKFAST**----------

Well, ladies and gentlemen! Imagine my surprise when I realized what we had for breakfast…TORTILLAS!

Again!

In the process of digging my hole, Magnet came up to me. He attempted to make conversation again.

_Poor sucker._

"So.. you get any blisters yet?"

I showed him my palms, which were, as usual, coated with blue, leather gloves.

He took my right hand and gently peeled the glove off. He was being really careful and soft, probably because he remembered the last time he tried to make friends and he ended up making me freeze on and off like a freak of nature

No blisters. At all. None.

"What?" Magnet looked confused.

Armpit came over and saw my blisterless hand and his jaw dropped open like something impossible had happened.

_Gloves, people. I was wearing gloves._

"Yo, X-Ray, the new girl ain't got no blisters!"

_WOW! Being stuck in the middle of the desert can make you thick._

"Lil' girl, you sure got lucky hands!" Armpit said stupidly.

_One of the seven dwarves has come to an intelligent conclusion..._

"Maybe-it's-coz-I- have-glooooves." I said, speaking very slowly so the intelligent little boys could understand.

"Oh." Magnet blushed.

_Ah... I shall name you Bashful_

"Lil' Girl, what's the deal with those gloves?" Squid was interrogating me.

_And you, my friend, shall be Dopey._

"Yeah, man, You're always wearing them. You never take 'em off."

"I just don't feel good without wearing them." I shrugged. "There a germs everywhere and if I take off my gloves they will infest my skin and I will die."

Each of them exchanged glances with each other and continued digging their holes.

Mine was almost finished. I was third to being finished with my hole behind Zero and Squid. I'm pretty good at this digging stuff.

Then I remembered the gold tube-thinger Caveman found. I just had to interfere.

I climbed out of my hole and stepped into Caveman's.

"Hey Cavie."

He grunted without looking up at me

"Um…Can I ask you something?" I squeaked.

"It's about the tube, isn't it?"

"Yeah." I fidgeted with my hair, which I never loosened from a tight ponytail. "I think we should go back to the hole that you found the brass tube in and-----"

"Look. I know you mean well, lil' girl, but I don't want to cause anymore trouble okay?" He slammed his shovel into the dirt.

"No…um…I mean---I really think there's _something_ there. I think---"

"A'RIGHT GIRL SCOUTS LINE UP OVER HERE WE GOTS AN ANNOUNCEMENT!"

Groans and curious murmurs were raised as each of the C, D, & F tentees climbed out of their holes.

The Warden was there, along with the counselors from other tents. I could see Smokey the Bear there, smiling like there's no tomorrow.

The Warden's strong female voice announced the new change:

"You will all go to the hole X-Ray was digging yesterday. We will continue to broaden and extend that hole until I say you can go back to digging _individual_ holes."

_Now I KNOW something's really wrong. IT'S A CONSPIRACY, I TELL YOU!_

I made a quick glance towards Caveman giving him an _I-told-you-so _look.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------2 WEEKS LATER----------

**---------------CAVEMAN'S POV.---------------**

Well, it turns out the Warden had something going on in her head because we worked on digging X-Ray's hole for two weeks now.

She's looking for something, I know it.

Lydia knows it.

The only difference is that whatever "IT" is, Lydia wants tofind it.  
I, however want NOTHING to do with It.

NOTHING, I TELL YOU! NOTHING!

I don't want to cause anymore trouble.

----------------------------------

"Today's the day…I can feel it!" The Warden sighed hopefully as she walked among us who were digging.

What did she mean by that?

The only good thing that came out of this was the Warden's good mood:

-We don't have to dig individual holes anymore.

-We get better food

-She made Armpit use deodorant

Things were going pretty well.

Until Armpit decided to create a VERY BAD VERSION of what X-Ray did:

"Ma'am, I think I found somethin'."

The very smart Armpit hands her something he tore from the broken T.V.

(Which Lydia & ZigZag seem to worship the very ground it stands on.)

The Warden stared at the object, then at Armpit with a blank expression.

"Are you tryin' to be funny? Or do you just think I'm stupid?"

Armpit's chubby face turns a slight shade of green.

"No ma'am I wasn't tryin' to be funny."

_Oh, so you just think she's stupid. _

Armpit turns around and glares at me like he heard my thoughts.

_Weird._

"Well Armpit, your little joke just cost you a week of shower privileges."

Everyone groaned.

"Man, you sleepin' OUTSIDE!" Squid looked like he was about to cry.

* * *

----------REC ROOM----------

**-----STILL CAVMAN'S P.O.V.-----**

As usual, the one and only Caveman finishes last with his hole.

(-looks around and expects roaring applause-)

At least most of the guys were done with the showers so I didn't have to wait so friggin long.

Just then Lydia entered the tent.

Oh! Good! Caveman! I need to talk to you!"

_Not again._

She was smiling so widely I think the sctoch tape that was holding her face up was about to collapse.

"Guess what?"

I waited.

"Guess!" she said playfully, but still in that quiet, shy voice.

"You took some happy pills?"

"Nope. I _know _it was you who found that thing in your hole, not X-Ray."

"Oh?"

She was still smiling, but it was now a confused, yet still deranged smile.

"And I'm going back to your hole to find out if there's anything else there."

"Oh!"

_"_And _you're _goingto help me dig!" she said cheerfully, flicking the tip of my nose lightly.

"No, that's alright. U'm good." I said.

"Hmm..." she said, as if she had expected that answer from me. "That's alright."

Suddenly she changed the subject.

"What's your REAL name?".

"My what?"

"You know…everyone in D-Tent has a retarded nickname and a REAL name. The one Smokey The Bear uses for you."

"Oh…"

I forced a smile.

"I'm Stanley. Stanley Yelnats."

Her smile went out like a light.

"Stanley?"

"Isn't that your last name spelled backwards?"

"Yes…I…think…so."

She seemed to be thinking about something, figuring something out.

…

"Yelnats, right?" she asked again, as if confirming something.

"Yes…YELNATS… Spelled: Y.E.L.N.----"

"**YELNATS!"**

She shouted so loud it practically scared me out of my tiny little brain.

"My great great grandmother robbed your great-great grandfather and left him stranded in the desert, you know." she said in such an even tone, but with a hint of pride.

_How could I forget that! My grandfather reminds me of that pathetic story almost EVERY DAY!_

"I-I knew that already. I thought YOU knew." I stated.

She made that annoying -tisk-tisk-sound that my mother makes.

"I've just decided I am going to dig this damn hole without you." she sighed.

At first I was speechless.

_Quick! Say something!_

"PIES!"

She looked at me incredulously.

She took a deep, sarcastic breath.

"Goodbye. I'm digging that hole without you."

And she sped out of the tent even faster than a naked molerat...

"Lydia! Please... s-st-st-st-STOP!"

I was too tired to run after her. My legs hurt, and I hadn't filed my nails today… (-sigh-)

* * *

**-----------LIGHTS OUT------------**

"Hey, wher'd Lil' mouse go?" Asked Magnet.

"Yeah, I didn't see her at all after she finished her hole."

Everyone looked at ZigZag expectantly, thinking he would say:

"Maybe the aliens finally came and took her to her home planet."

But he was quiet for once. And he looked worried. Very worried.

I wasn't much of a talker that night either.

Zero was blankly staring at the ceiling as usual. He seemed to want to talk to me that day…that day when he asked me if I could teach him how to read.

I still feel guilty about it.

An hour passed, and X-Ray was playing poker with Armpit, Squid, & Magnet.

Lil' girl still wasn't here. ZigZag's hair was even puffier than usual, and he was biting his nails. I don't think I've ever seen him bite his nails before.

_She's out digging that hole..._

I sighed apprehensively.

Armpit, the mind thinker snapped his head my direction.

He was trying to find the right words to say. His mouth opened, then closed, then opened again.

"Yo, Pit. It's your turn."

He blinked several times. Looked at his cards, at X-Ray, at me, then his cards again.

He put them down.

"I don't feel like playin' guys. I'm goin'to sleep or sumthin'."

The other three jeered and said things like; "Man, you're such a chicken. Afraid to loose more shower tokens that you never use anyway?"

Armpitwas walking towards me, giving me an "I can't believe you" look.

_Mommy! _(-sucks thumb-)

"Hey, do you know where the lil' mouse is?" he asked.

My heart seemed to want to leap out of my chest.

"Uh…I dunno. Probably in her tent."

"No she's not. You know she's not."

"Uh…"

"Look, man. She's a little 14-year-old girl in a desert filled with aggressive poisonous lizards in a camp full of rapists and murderers. NOW she'sdigging a hole that she thinks might have GLORY HALLELUJAH in it!"

His face moved an inch from my nose..

"Now what are you going to do?" he demanded in a low voice.

"Uh..um…I'm gonna…uh…go get her…now."

I got up so abruptly I received a dredolent rush.

"Good." He shifted his enormous weight and stood up.

"I'll come with you."

Why was Armpit being so protective about Lil' Mouse?

Then I remembered that day in counseling when Mom asked him something about his past, and he almost cried.

* * *


	10. Maggie

.-.-.-.-

**All the members of D-Tent have a story. Even Armpit. And all the stories have something significant in common….as you will see later if you keep reading.**

-

**--------------3 YEARS AGO------------**

Theodore.

With a name like THEODORE, you can't really complain about being called "Armpit." (unless a reader of this fanfiction IS named Theodore, then no offense whatsoever.)

He winced when someone called him by that name.

The only person who was allowed to call him Theodore was Maggie.

Maggie is--**was **his sister. She was adopted and everyone knew it. It was obvious because when you see an Asian kid in a family of black people, you KNOW she ain't supposed to be there.

_She was found at the doorstep of the Jackson family._

"_Her name's Maggie", was all the note said._

_Maggie._

_Theodore had no one to talk to. No one to smile at and give presents to on Christmas._

_Mom was always busy._

_His seven other brothers and sisters…they didn't even know he existed._

_Dad…what dad?_

_Theodore was lonely._

_Until Maggie turned up on his front porch when he was five years old._

_-_

_DING DONG!_

_Little Theodore opened the door. He looked left and right, and saw no one._

A droplet of drool fell upon his big toe.

Theodore looked down.

"_MOMMY! SOMEONE LEFT A DOG ON OUR PORCH!"_

_Mrs. Jackson rushed to the doorway to be surprised by a little bundle of joy making a poopie on her porch._

_They decided to keep it…and they named it Maggie._

_-_

_One day, when Maggie was five, and Theodore was ten, she suddenly had a craving for a chocolate sundae._

"_Bubba, can I have a chokat sundae?"_

_Theodore looked down at her from reading a comic book._

"_What?"_

"_I WANNA CHOKAT SUNDAY!" she whined_

"_Maggie, I don't like you saying it that way." Theodore scolded her about her manners._

_"Ok. strawberry, then."_

_-----_

_They were in an alley and it was close to 7:00._

"_Bubba, I don't like this place. It's dark and it smells like pee pee."_

_If only he had listened to her._

"_If only, if only _

_The woodpecker cries_

_The bark of the tree was as soft as the skies_

_While the wolf waits below_

_Hungry and lonely_

_He cries to the moo-oo-oon_

_If only, if only"_

"_Maggie, where'd you hear that song?"_

"_From my dreams. A old lady with lotsa wrinkles and a big smile comes and whispers them in my ear."_

_Theodore looked worried._

"_Maggie..."_

_Suddenly there was a loud gunshot._

_And yelling._

"_Hal... Get out of my house, or I swear, I'll shoot you!"_

_Another voice, this one was male:_

"_Baby, don't do this, please!"_

_Another gunshot. Pigeons fluttering._

_A few steps away, there was a lady in hair curlers pointing a small gun at a man holding a bundle of clothing._

_Theodore knew they had to get out of there._

_He grabbed Maggie's hand._

"_Baby, you're right. Let's go another way."_

_He pulled at her tiny hand, but she didn't budge._

"_MAGGIE! Please, let's go! Don't do this to me!"_

_Something in Maggie's face haunted Theodore to this very day. A pale sort sadness you only see in old, old eyes. _

_The way her eyes showed that she knew something was going to happen._

_He pulled at her hand. She still stayed put._

_Gunshots. More yelling. Neighbors complaining._

"_Abby, give me the damn gun!"_

"_No!"_

"_Give me the gun!"_

_The man makes a mistake. He dives and tackles the stubby woman in hair curlers in attempt to grab the gun._

_Struggle._

_And then._

_BANG!_

_The bullet bounced quickly, back and fourth from one side of the alley wall to the other._

_It dodged from left to right…right to left…like lightning… heading towards…_

"_Maggie! No!"_

_Suddenly the very still Maggie jolts, like she was struck by the lightning._

_Theodore freezes._

_She looks up at him slowly with such a strange sadness and then closes her large, mouse-like eyes._

_Maggie crumbles onto the ground._

"_Maggie!"_

_From the background: _

"_Oh my God."_

"_You killed her."_

"_Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God..."_

_Theodore didn't hear any of it._

_The only thing he heard was his loud breathing and the loud heartbeat of the dying little creature soaking his new shirt with thick,crimson blood._

"_Maggie, I'm gonna go get some people to come and help you," Theodore said,trying to blink away the fogginess that was clouding his mind._

_"After that, we can get some ice-cream, okay?"_

_Maggie's once dark, Asian eyeswere still closed._

_"Bubba..." she says weakly._

_Her head plops to one side._

_Theodore cried, holding her tiny head close to his chest and rocking her limp body back and forth like he had when he first met her laying on his front porch._

_But Maggie. Maggie could no longer hear him._

_She could no longer see._

_She could no longer touch._

_She could no longer laugh._

_She could no longer live._

_

* * *

_

**----------the NEW GUY'S POV.----------**

Bitter.

Bitter was the taste in my mouth when I grasped the haunted shovel in my hand and began looking for Stanley's deserted hole.

The hole that I know has buried secrets…or at least a cool dead body, or something.

There were more than a million holes before me.

_Dammit._

_Oh where, og where has my little hole gone? Oh where, oh where can it be?_

Holes.

How I began to feel my stomach twist when I heard the word.

The only thing I saw besides sand and depressing holes was a deformed rock…

Hey…that rock kinds looks like Mr. Sir if you squinted one eye and tilt your head to one side…

**The Dream!**

_-----memory-----_

_(chap. 05)_

"_Suddenly Kissin' Kate's gang was gone and we were alone. And then countless o f 5-foot holes opened on the ground before me. One had a big rock next to it. That's where she stopped the horse._

_The rock looked like Mr. Sir if you squinted one eye and tilted your head."_

-

"Wow, this is creepy. Creepy as finding Pendanski in a pink dress…"

I went over to the rock.

"Thank you, Mr. Sir!" I couldn't believe my words.

One thing left to do.

Dig.

I jumped into the hole and began the…excavation.

Dig.

I think I had been digging for more than two hours and I still hadn't found a thing!

NOT ONE LITTLE TINY SCRAP OF AN ANSWER!

Suddenly I heard voices. Whispers.

"Lil Girl?"

"Lydia?"

"Where are you?"

"Where you at, dawg?"

_Quick! Close your eyes and try to disappear!_

I tightly closed my eyes.

Well, that didn't work.

Caveman must have recognized his hole...

"Hey, I think I know where she is!"

The footsteps pounding onto the sand were becoming louder as they headed towards the hole I was in.

When they looked down into the hole, they weren't really shocked to see a familiar facecovered in dust in a 7-foot deep hole with her eyes tightly closed, looking like she just got vinegar sprayed into her eyes.

"LYDIA!"

"LIL' GIRL!"

I opened my eyes to see dark faces peering at me from the top of the hole.

"Lydia, I told you not to go here! What are you doing?"

"Trying to disappear."

"Lil' girl, we gotsa get back ta camp. What if Mr. Sir finds you here?"

"I'll probably end up dead or violently murdered and tossed into the ocean in a potato sack."

"Lydia, we'll talk about this later, kay?"

"No. I want to keep digging until I find some 19th century underwear or a boot or something." I defiantly said.

"But you didn't _find_ anything!"

"Lil' girl, the reason why you can't go out here is'casue it's dangerous! There are lizards that pop out of nowhere that can KILL you! And there are murderous 17-years old rapists lurking in every corner."

_I'm tired... I think I'll just pretend to give up for now._

"Alright…" I said guiltily. "I'll stop… You were right."

I sighed and tried to be as innocent as I could.

"Alrighty then."

"Ok."

"Fine."

"Fine."

…

"How am I supposed to get out?"

_Fuckedy fuck._

"No swearin' lil' girl." Armpit said.

"I didn't say anything, you scary boy."

…

…

"So How do I get out again?"

Caveman sat at the edge of the hole and lowers himself halfway into it. Armpit was holdingCaveman's arms.

"Grab my feet." he said.

"I'm not touching those, thank you."

"Just grab the shoes or you'll grow old here!"

_That's a scary thought._

I grabbed his ankles and was lifted up, out of the hole by the amazingly strong mind-reader.

"Now, DON'T EVER GO BACK HERE AGAIN!" Poor Stanley looked like a nervous parent.

"Ok. I'll never go back here again." I repeated him.

"Good."

_Not._

"What did you say?" asked Armpit.

"Um…_hot_. It's really hot out here. I think we should go back now."

-----------------------

We returned to the tent and all the boys' eyes turned to us.

They obviously noticed the shovel in my hand.

"Where were you, chica?" Magnet asked happily.

He's always happy.

It's annoying.

"I was finishing my hole."

"After lights out?" X-Ray inquired.

"She got lost." Armpit broke in.

X-Ray raised his caterpillar eyebrows and returned to playing cards.

Everyone seemed to go back to what they were doing except for ZigZag.

He was looking at me with such relief.

Caveman gave me a warning look and went to Zero's cot, trying to make a conversation with him. They seemed to be making very close friends with each other.

I once saw Caveman and Zero hunched over a piece of paper and writing ….Reading lessons?

Armpit gave me an even more violent glare as he went back to playing cards.

ZigZag came up to me, walking around my corpse-looking-disheveled figure like he was looking for something.

His face looked either like he was either concentrating or constipated. He was bent over just a little bit, and his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

He lifted his finger and started poking me.

"What---What are you doing!"

"I'm just checking something."

"What? If my skin resembles a banana?"

"I'm checking to see if I'm just skin that's a disguise an alien made out of my dead carcass."

He was still poking me and concentrating on the texture of my alien skin.

I rolled my eyes.

"Stop that." I slapped his hand sharply.

He began pinching my skin and observing it like a scientist with a microscope.

"Stop it or I shall be forced to zap you with my alien scepter."

He immediately stopped.

"Where were you?" he asked, then looked at his hands. "I was worried..."

"I was trying to re-dig Caveman's hole…to see if something was really there."

"Did you find anything?"

"No. But I _know_ something's there. I just know it."

"I think there's something there, too."

It finally dawned to me that ZigZag was the only smart one in the tent.

…Or we could be the only dumb ones in the tent.

"Are you going back there again?"

"Yeah."

"Well, don't."

I shook my head. "But you said you belived something was hidden there!"

Zigzag took one of my gloved hands and laid it on his palm.

"Lil' girl... look at your hands." he said.

I sighed and glanced down and my gloved fingers.

"Look how small they are."

I rolled my eyes and tried to snatch my handaway, but he held it tighter.

"Lil' girl. You can't hold the world in yout little hands. You can't control it. I mean--- you can barely hold a _shovel_ with these hands. If you try to control what you can't grasp, then before you know it, these hands of yours will be cold and dead and buried in a little hole in the desert."

I looked down at my shoes and scowled.

Since when had Zizag gotten something wise to say?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

**/A.N./ I know no one usually does very much in their stories with X-Ray & Armpit…and its not your regular Girl-Goes-To-Camp-Greenlake story (I don't plan to have any romances between the campers and the "sexy" new girl in Greenlake…I think…)**

**But I just thought there just had to be a reason why Louis Sachar put those specific characters in his story.**

**Review! And WOW…um…I didn't know a reviewer could be so nice as to write so many reviews about almost every chapter. (EHEM! I mean lilmizzrebel31…THANK YOU. And also to MAD4majik, and to you, my strange classmate who I don't even know very well …just kidding.) **

**Fin**


	11. Voices Of More Than One Kind

* * *

**----------AFTER LIGHTS OUT----------**

I didn't know why, but it was terribly hard for me to go to sleep.

I twisted, turned, lay down on my stomach until it was hard to breathe….

_I'm hungry._

My extremely-tired-yet-unable-to-get-to-sleep brain told me to get out of bed and go to the kitchen to get a snack.

I was about to do that when my irrational brain woke up and said:

_No, you idiot! You're in Camp Greenlake, now. There is no kitchen here for you. There is no food. There is no life._

I sighed.

_You are just some loser with nothing who forgot that she doesn't even have a kitchen._

Wow. I hate my mind.

"Now, why did I wake up again?"

_You were hungry, you fucking moron._

"Shut up."

_Make me._

"No. I heard **something..**. I know I did."

I strained my ears like a mouse with ears perked up like it heard danger was nearby.

I listened.

Nothing.

Then.

_**Go.**_

"ZigZag?"

**_Go. Go now_.**

There was whispering all around me.

"Who's there?"

_**Please. Go now…before it goes away.**_

"Squid?"

_**Go Now! Please! You haven't much time!**_

"Whoever you are, you're scaring me."

_**You must stop her…. You must stop her…**_

I looked around. The source of the whispering voice was circling me. Going around and around me, taunting me.

_**You must stop her….you must stop her…you must stop her….**_

"What the fuck?"

_**You must stop her….you must stop her…you must stop her…you must stop her…**_

"Stop Who?"

_**HER….you must stop her… You must stop her….you must stop her…you must stop her…you must stop her…**_

"You aren't very bright, whoever you are."

(-silence-)

…

I have a very bad feeling about th--

_**STOP HER! STOP HER NOW! OR ALL OF YOU! ALL OF YOU WILL DIE!**_

"Jesus! You're getting me so frustrated!"

_**ALL OF YOU WILL DIE!...ALL OF YOU WILL DIE!...ALL OF YOU WILL DIE!...ALL OF YOU WIL DIE!...**_

"Please," I said in a small, defeated voice.

…

_**IT'S TOO LATE.**_

The voices sounded desolate and hollow.

_**IT'S TOO LATE. SHE GOT AWAY.**_

(-silence-)

…

"Hello?"

…

"Dammit."

_Look what you did, you slow little retard! You made them go away!_

"What was I supposed to do? I didn't know what the fuck they were talking about?"

_That's because you're slow._

"Shut up."

_You're so stupid, you told yourself to shut up._

-lesigh-

_Whatever. Go to sleep. I'm tired._

I went back to the shit rag they gave me to sleep on and pulled the covers over my head **extra** high even though it was hot and I began to sweat profusely…. Because I was afraid.

Afraid of _them_

"Goodnight" I said to no one in particular.

Then out of the darkness:

_**Goodnight.**_

_-------------------------------_

------------------------------

CLANG! CLANG!

"Rise & Shine!"

"New hole, new Day!"

_Someday I shall kill you and sew your mouth shut._

That made me smile.

_Wow, you're such a psycho._

"YOU'RE STILL HERE?"

_I'm your brain. I was always here and always will be._

"Well…I don't want you to leave…"

_Good. Now get up._

"I'm too sleepy. Those voice thingies made me stay up all night."

_Fine! DON'T listen to the brain._

I closed my heavy eyelids and dozed off again.

-

"Good morning, lil' girl."

Something was flicking my ear lightly.

My eyes snapped open and I sat up abruptly.

My forehead collided with another.

Squid, the owner of the clumsy forehead fell back. He began swearing like it was a language.

"Someday, you're gonna kill me."

"Me is sorry."

He was rubbing his forehead.

"I think my forehead grew a twin..." he groaned.

"Umm….me is…sorry?"

He looked up at me, then rotated his head as he was looking around my tent.

"When the other girls come…are they each gonna have a private tent?"

"Don't ask me."

He stopped looking around and fixed his vision at my own face.

My hair had gone in all directions like a giant red cloud. My pyjamas were buttoned the wrong way and there was something that closely resembled a twig, stuck to the collar of my shirt.

"Do all girls look like you when they wake up?"

_Grrrr!…Squid…mean_.

"Do all guys look like you despite whether they've just woken up or not?"

Squid grinned arrogantly, thinking it was a complement;

"Lil' girl, you know the answer to that question already."

"Wow. Then I might as well become a lesbian."

**/A.N.: Urgh, now I know why a lot of authors copyright their own characters & plot sometimes so many ppl. have gotten the same ideas as me. It's probably just coincidence, or whateva…but authors who want to take something from another author's story should write it in the disclaimer…**

**Anyways…me shall update soon…I hope.**

**Thank you to:**

**Lilmizzrebel31: …Please be my friend.You're sooo nice to review for more than 2 chapters. I read your story thing on Ginny…_so cute_…I loved it.**

**Fk306 animelover: I really like your story because of the character. Partly because it's a lot like mine (oh, how I love random people), and partly because she's smart enough not to call everybody her enemy in a camp full of murderers and rapists like in other (unnamed) fanfics. I'll update regularly.**

**Thepersonwhosinmyclass: Technically, you haven't been in my class since the 2nd grade. We aren't even in the same country anymore. And how did you know about the English competition thingy? N.m……thank you for reviewing.**

* * *


	12. Tragedy

**Lilmizzrebel31: Thanks for another yet encouraging review.  
****Fk306 animelover:** **Chickens scare me. One bit me for no reason when I was seven. And the scariest thing is that they don't even have teeth.**

**(-tear-)**

**This chapter, like many of my other ones, are particularly strange. If you are fully sane and do not want your mind to be contaminated by random drabble, I suggest you stop reading the rest of this story in order to save your own sanity.**

**Thank you,**

**_LeMoNsOuR_**

16

**----------DIGGING HOLES:----------**

This was my twenty-something hole. After all of the confusion, I didn't bother to count.

A few hours later, the water truck came. Everyone hurried to line up even though they knew it didn't matter at all how fast or slow they went.

Caveman, Zero and I were always at the back. He and Caveman had been pretty good friends lately. I saw them talking about something, making some kind of deal... shaking hands.

"Nice weather we're having." Zero suddenly said. He was looking at me like he really wanted to say something, but he was afraid to.

Everyone had their attention on us, even though they tried to look busy. Even Mr. Sir who was filling the bottles.

It was one of the first times I heard him speak. The last time I heard him was when he was rapping to himself in the shower and I was on laundry duty collecting dirty towels and whatnot.

_I like Big butts and I cannot lie... you otha brothas can't deny..._

I heard Squid whisper to Magnet. They both looked surprised at Zero for some reason.

Zero's face knotted into a concerned expression... The first expression I've ever seen Zero _in_.

Then he squinted and looked up at me again.

"Did you hear voices yesterday?" he asked.

My heart stopped beating and I think I died for a few seconds…...really.

_Now_ the boys had turned around and they were watching with bewilderment.

"Dude! You made Zero talk! Hey, only Caveman can do that!"

_Blah._

"Well... did you?" Zero demanded.

"Did I what?"

"DIDYOU HEAR VOICES?"

I bit my lip and turned away. Zero scowled at me, crossed his arms, and refused to do anything but stare spitefully at the ground.

Mr. Sir snapped out of his drooly daze, blinked his eyes, and went on to filling canteens.

"Dude, you made Zero tawk!" Squid exclaimed again, surprised.

_Squid has a very short memory span, doesn't he?_

Everyone looked either worried or shocked as the line of thirsty people slowly moved up.

Magnet looked especially worried.

He looked like a psycho math teacher had pointed a gun at him and forced him to solve an impossible math problem.

_If you don't go any faster, Mr. Dogface, I will shove one of these canteens up your-----_

"EHEM!" Armpit cleared his throat and shook his pointer finger at me like a scolding grandpa.

_Why does he treat me like I'm his baby sister, or something?_

After we had all of our canteens filled, we went back to digging.

Dig.

God, I hate that word.

-

I was almost finished with my hole (Zero was strangely slower today, and my hole was only inches shallower than his.)

When Magnet came up to me, he looked like he had an invisible string knotting his face to the center.

"Mouse, I gotta tell you something'."

_**Mouse?** I screamed 'RAWR' and hit a boy with a shovel and they end up calling me MOUSE?_

"I think I heard something las' night too. I tried not to say anything incase I woke someone up and they caught me talking to 'myself'." he said slowly, looking around to see if anyone was staring at him.

"What exactly did you hear, Magnet?"

"Some kind of whispering. There was more than one person, but they wee all saying the same things."

"Like what?"

"They told me to stop _her_."

"And?"

"And that we are all going to die."

"..."

I wondered if anyone else heard them…the voices, I mean.

"Do you think anyone else----"

"No. They were all asleep."

"Why do you think we're the only ones who heard it?"

Magnet's voice changed into something quite scary for someone so happy.

I realized it was the first time I didn't see him with that retarded smile pulled accross his face.

"IT WAS YOU! I KNOW WHO THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT, DON'T DENY!"

"Magnet, I---"

"THINGS DIDN'T START TO HAPPENING UNTIL YOU CAME.. YOU ARE SOMETHING SCARY, CHICA." he said in his strange grammar.

"No, Magnet. Look--"

"YOU HAVE TO LEAVE NOW, WHOEVER YOU ARE. DISAPPEAR TO WHEREVER YOU CAME FROM AND LEAVE US ALONE."

"What are you TALKING ABOUT?"

"YOU PROBABLY AIN'T EVEN A LIVING THING. JUST SOME EVIL MONSTRUOSO COME TO KILL US ALL."

"Will you let me speak?" I cried, exhasperated.

He brought his forehead close to mine and growled, "If anything happens to any more of my friends, you will pay, little girl... You will pay."

Before I could stutter any more useless words, he walked away, dragging his heavy shovel behind him.

I felt like I was about to cry.

_Maybe I AM the one the voices are whispering about. _

_Maybe..._

_Maybe I AM a curse._

But then again:

They said it was "too late." Why would they say that when I didn't even leave the room? I didn't DO anything.

I turned around and began to dig again.

Uncontrollable sniffles and tears were all that was heard or seen from me for two hours.

No one asked any questions.

* * *

I went straight to the Wreck room after taking a shower from the new one they had installed. 

I lowered myself onto the lonely cot and just stayed there, curled up under the covers, feeling alone and scared.

Pretty soon I drifted off to sleep.

I was awakened by familiar voices.

How long had I been sleeping?

I looked at my watch: I was asleep for 3 hours!

And it was already Lights Out!

-

I heard the boys pile into the tent, murmuring, talking…etc.

"Dude, what did you say to Mouse today?" I heard Squid ask.

Magnet didn't answer.

Someone else butted in. It was Caveman.

"She's been quiet _all day_."

Magnet still didn't answer.

Squid went on:  
"Did it have anything to do with the voices Zero and her were talking about?"

"Man, it was nothing. She probably had dust in her eyes." Magnet finally muttered.

"Magnet, she was quiet the _whole_ day. She didn't say anything sarcastic or rude since this morning!"

Then I heard ZigZag.

"Yeah, today felt kind of… quiet. What happened between you people?"

"LOOK! I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! OKAY!"

There was a long silence.

"Whatever, man."

-

I heard someone enter my tent and walk towards me.

I was in my cot, curled up in a ball, and my back facing whoever had entered.

I pretended to be asleep.

"Mouse?"

The person shifted closer.

"Mouse, are you awake?"

It was Magnet.

"I'm sorry." he said

And he left.

-

When he was gone, I emerged myself from under the suffocating covers and took a deep breath. I sat up on the cot and just stared ahead into space.

_What's wrong with me? What's wrong with EVERYTHING?_

I began sobbing again.

_Oh! You are such a crybaby! Stop it now!_

"Go away.I want to be alone." I said to my mind.

_Are you HEARING yourself? You've gone nuts! Your whole life is falling apart into nothing but a dream…_

I covered my ears, as if trying to block mythem from the sound of my own thoughts and began crying uncontrollably.

_(sniffle-sniffle. Sob. Sniffle-sniffle.)_

I was hyperventilating like a helium balloon.

"WHY" _sniffle _"IS THIS" _sniffle_ "HAPPENING TO ME!"

ZigZag, Caveman, Squid, and even Zero came in out of curiosity.

I was jolting up and down out of sniffles like I was being shocked with electricity.

How embarrassing.

They all crowded around my cot and started asking questions here and there, petting my shoulder once in a while.

"Mouse, what's wrong?"

"What's goin' on, Dude?"

"Lydia, what's the matter?"

"Lil' Girl?"

_How many damnnames have these people given me?_

"Just go away. My dead mother called me telepathically from her grave and informed that my hamster just died." I said in a sad tone.

"Maybe you can just ask your mom if your hamster is with her…up in the sky…" ZigZag suggested, and looked dreamily to the ceiling.

Squid sat beside me and put his arm around my shoulder.  
For the first time, I didn't freeze when someone touched me.

I just didn't care anymore. My nerves, my feelings, they all have become drugged with invisible morphine.

"Can you tell us what really happened today?" Squid asked.

But all I could pay attention to was Zero. He wanted everyone to leave the room. I could see it in his face.

"You guys, it's nice that you came and all, but I want to be alone for a while, okay?"

They all left.

Except for Zero.

He bowed his head, then lifted it again.

"It's Magnet." Zero sighed

"What about Magnet?"

His eyes turned a shade of hollow;

"He disappeared."


	13. A VeRy WrOnG DaY

_**-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**_

"Excuse me?" I asked, on the verge of hyperventilation.

"Magnet. He disappeared after he left the tent." Zero had a dark look in his large eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"I MEAN when he left the tent, X-Ray went after him, and when he was following him, Magnet disappeared into thin air!"

"Why didn't the boys tell me?" I gasped for air.

"They didn't want you hyperventilating like you're doing now."

I stood up from the cot on which I was sitting.

"O.k. We've got to find him!"

Zero blinked.

"Incase you haven't noticed, he disappeared into thin air…"

I stared blankly.

"That – means – we – don't – know – where – he – disappeared – TO." Zero said, as if talking to a dense, slow, 5-year old.

"So what do we do? Fuck, it's all my fault."

I plopped down on the cot again.

Once more, I broke into tears.

_Stop doing that! You're embarrassing me!_

Zero scratched his fluffy head and left the tent.

"Asshole."

----------------------------------

**----------AFTER LIGHTS OUT----------**

I couldn't sleep.

I was waiting.

Waiting for _them._

The voices.

I waited for what seemed like hours.

_Lydia, just go to sleep. They're not coming tonight------_

_**Go.**_

"They're here… the voices." I said dramatically to myself.

_**Go now!**_

"Go where?" I whispered.

_**Go! You must stop her….you must stop her…you must stop her…you must stop her…**_

"Who must I stop? You have to tell me or I can't go to wherever you want me to go!"

_**You must stop her… You must stop her….you must stop her…you must stop her…you must stop her…**_

"Are you talking about me? Am I 'her'?"

(-silence-)

_**You must stop her. You must stop the Walker. You must stop The Walker.**_

I stopped.

_Think, Lydia! Think!_

"Where is Magnet?"

(-silence-)

**_He went…..he went…he went to…to God's…He went to God's thumb….to God's Thumb…to God's thumb….to God's thumb_**

I cupped my hand to my mouth like a frightened blonde in a horror movie.

"Oh my God." Drops of salted water built reservoirs in my eyes.

_**Go now….she can't find it…you must stop her…you must stop her…**_

"Oh my God. Magnet's dead. He's dead. He's dead. He's dead…"

_**God's Thumb…Go…Go now!**_

Say something I don't know." I sighed tiredly.

**_You must stop her... you must stop her... you must stop her..._**

"Man, I'm tired of this!"

"I'm goin' to sleep." I heard myself say.

_**WHAT?**_

Suddenly the Voices sounded desperate.

**_Nooooo! Please! Don't go to sleep! _**

"Huh?"

**_We'll do nice things! WISHES! WE'LL GRANT WISHES!_**

"Excuse me?"

_**CANDY! HOW ABOUT CANDY, LIL' GIRL?**_

"Man, this is even scarier than yesterday."

**_IF YOU GO TO GOD'S THUMB TOMORROW…UMM…WE'LL GIVE YOU A CHOCOLATE SPATULA!_**

"Who are you in the first place?"

_**We are your ancestors. We are the ancestors of every family that has to do with the missing treasure and the big Secret.**_

"COOL! Mom! Dad! How is it up there?"

_**I'm sorry, Lydia. They aren't here.**_

"Don't my parents count as ancestors?"

_**Sorry, kid. They probably went ahead without us.**_

"Oh. That's good news…I think."

"So what am I supposed to do?"

_**Lil' Girl, didn't we make it clear that you were supposed to go to God's Thumb? God, what a loser.**_

"Man I don't know what the hell God's thumb is. I thought you meant Magnet died and he went to God's thumb…I mean Heaven, or something."

A shrugged.

"And plus you were talking in stupid riddles and I didn't know what you meant."

_**You sure are a "smart" little girl, haw haw.**_

"Shut up. Diss me one more time and I might just blow off this whole thing."

_**We just wanted to add a scary effect, you know…like in the movies.**_

"So all of that stuff about us going to die?"

**_Yeah….um….about that….WE JUST WANTED YOU TO HURRY YOU UP A BIT…_**

"Wow. So I'm not going to die?"

_**WE NEEDED SOMETHING TO MAKE YOU SO SCARED THAT YOU WOULD ACTUALLY BE WILLING TO DO THIS…**_

"Wow."

_**AND…**_

"Wow."

_**We didn't finish yet!**_

"Wow."

**_IS THAT THE ONLY WORD IN YOUR VOCABULARY? SOMETIMES WE WONDER IF YOU REALLY ARE RELATED TO US…_**

"That's it, I'm going to sleep now."

_**FINE! SEE IF WE CARE ANYMORE! YOU JUST HAVE YOUR LITTLE BEAUTY SLEEP AND---**_

"ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz."

_**-MAN, THAT KID ISN'T FROM MY SIDE OF THE FAMILY AT ALL!**_

_**-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------**_

**----------DR. PANDANSKI'S P.O.V.---------- **

(Yes, even the Freaks need love)

Ah! Morning!

The beginning of a new day in Camp Greenlake…

I wake up automatically at 3:00 as alwaysand gotready for the day... Whilst singing a happy Showtune song!

I open the tent flap and blast out like a true enthusiast.

I take a deep breath.

"GOOD MOOOOORNING, CAMP GREENLAKE!"

I camp counselor from B Tent passes by. He looks at me with worried eyes.

Some people just don't appreciate life like I so willingly do.

With a cheerful smile, I pick up my trusty kitchen pan and my wooden spoon and set out to awaken the happy campers.

(The tape recording of the morning trumpet had broken…and the poor camp does not have the time to fix or replace it.)

I scan the campgrounds happily and raise my hand high over my head to lightly, oh so very lightly, tap the pan with my wooden spoon.

Before I swoop it down with all of my strength, a _hand_ grabs my wrist which was holding the wooden spoon tightly.

I turn around to see that little girl who had come to Camp Greenlake to join us a short while ago.

She looked quite frightening this morning, I must say. She looked like she hadn't had much sleep at all.

Her name was something with a "Q" in it…. Ludo?

"Why hello Lud----"

"MUST…HAVE…PEACE…AND…QUIET!" she huffed in a robotic-psychotic way that frightened me very much.

"Lil' girl, I would so kindly be obliged if you let go of the spoon."

The little girl, who looked very disheveled indeed, swiped the spoon and the pan from me with impossible strength…

And she flung it across the tentgrounds!

"Now see here, Lacey----"

"SLEEP!... ME WANT-EY!"

But she had stormed into her tent—rather staggered towards her D-tent and disappeared inside.

"Oh well…." I took a deep, cleansing breath;

"RISE AND SHINE, BOYS….NEW HOLE! NEW DAY!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**----------SQUID'S P.O.V.----------**

**----------DIGGING HOLES----------**

Something was definitely wrong with the lil' girl today.

Mouse was just so quiet ever since that talk with Magnet.

I never know what to say to someone like Mouse. No one does.

And Magnet.

He's been gone since last night!

Maybe ZigZag and Mouse are right. Maybe there IS something going on .

They're looking for him…

Magnet.

_Where are you, Magnet?_

I hate to admit it, but I'm worried. And I'm beginning to (-**shiver**-) _understand_ that girl.

I can imagine it now: The newspaper article that people will be talking about for years to come:

"**Lydia and José, Two camp members of Camp Greenlake, have disappeared from the face of the Earth.**

**The two have never been spotted since a green light in the sky came and took them away…"**

I didn't want Mouse to disappear.

_She's our tent Mascot!_

Armpit, who was digging his hole beside me, glared something fierce. He didn't like people making fun of Mouse. _I think it's because of his dead sister or something..._

He can read minds.

No one believes me. Not even ZigZag.

Well, Mouse does. But she believes any shit I say.

-

But I said before:

Something was wrong with Mouse today.

Something was wrong with EVERYONE today.

That's wrong.

It's as wrong as finding Mom in gothic clothes & eyeliner, singing Matallica with an air guitar.

THAT'S wrong.

* * *

**----------SQUID'S P.O.V.----------**

We ate Tortillas, as usual, for breakfast. And even _Mouse_ didn't complain.

Wrong.

When Mom was passing out sandwiches, there was no one there to complain in Spanish about sand in his lunch.

Wrong.

In the water line, there was no one trying to push their way to the front.

Wrong.

I heard Mom complaine about some demon that heaved his kitchen pan and wooden spoon into the desert.

Wrong. WRONG. WRONG!

That's it.

I dropped my shovel onto the cracked ground and it landed with a series of CLANGS.

I stomped over to Mouse's tent, where she was sadly digging her pathetic little hole.

"Mouse." I said in a surprisingly angry voice. "Where is Magnet?"

She looked over her shoulder at me with tired eyes.

"I don't know." She said weakly.

I sat down next to her hole.

"What do you mean, you don't know?"

"I don't know where Magnet went. I don't know….I don't know…"

She looked like she was going toburst into tears.

_Look what you did NOW, Squid! You made a girl cry…_

I gave her an awkward hug.

She froze again, like a little mouse, when she was touched. .

"Mouse. I don't know what's going on…. And first it didn't matter, but now…."

I continued with a determined voice.

"Magnet's gone, man. I'm creeped out by everything that's happened since you came here."

Her weary eyes became even more moist.

"I think something is going to happen today." she said, refusing to look directly at my face.

"What do you mean?"

Her face suddenly became cold and serious.

"I think someone else is going to **go** today…"

"You mean…disappear?"

"Well…maybe not TODAY…but soon. I….I don't know yet. But someone's going to leave Camp Greenlake, and it's not because their crime sentence is finished."

We were both silent.

I finally went to my hole, picked my shovel up, and began digging. Mouse did the same.

* * *

**/A.N.: Wow… A lot of reviewers…12 reviews!**

**Thank you Reviewers for not just writing "this is good. Update soon." Because it technically isn't a review at all. THAT'S WHY I'M SO HAPPY YOU WROTE LONGER REVIEWS! (-gives each of you a hug-) Constructive criticisms please…just don't overdo it…**

**MeltedIcecreamIsMe: I'm sorry…thank you for saying all those wonderful things but a lot of people have Mary-Sues already and I'm trying to experiment on as many things as I can in one story…but I'll think about it. For now, I think Romance is not part of the plot, but there MIGHT BE SOME IN LATER CHAPTERS WITH AN UNEXPECTED TWIST. (-wink wink-)**

**Lilmizzrebel31: Hello again, my extremely-nice-to-review-all-the-chapters reviewer. I shall add more Squid and Zero, especially on the 20-something chapters because you asked so nicely. **

**MAD4magik: Thank you most of all for your abundant reviews, and for commenting on my stories instead of just saying it was either 'good' or 'bad.'… Just one thing: Why did you say I was boring? (-teary eyes-) Should I change some things in my story? If so, please tell me. :) Really.**

**Oh…and you are allowed to marry my story if you don't mention 'kids' again.**

**FAeOfDaRkNeSs: Very nice of you. I have never been called a 'comedic genius' and even though I don't know if that's really true for me, I like how people review on things that actually _have_ something to so with my FF. Thanx.**

_**LeMoNsOuR**_


	14. The Masher

**/A.N.: I don't own Holes…okay? Okay. OKAY? O**k_**a**y... ok._

**ArwenEvenstar83: A thousand thanks, my friend. (-bows-) Sarcasm used to be my friend, but he went to Ohio and I never heard from him again.**

**Leencz: Stop that! It is so annoying. I'm gonna find a new best friend and not sit beside you in any classes in school anymore!**

**(-grabs Zero's arm-) **

**Come on, Zero! You're my best friend now!**

**(-walks away, dragging Zero kicking and screaming-)**

**Thank you reviewers.**

**Now.**

**Let's boogie. **

**----------MOUSE'S P.O.V.----------**

For criminals, they really aren't that scary.

Even that guy who had a fight with Caveman in the Rec Room (Well it turned out they called it "WRECK room.") was **_ok._**

Everything's ok!

Umm…wait…no it isn't.

I'm a curse.

And the only way to stop it is to end my life….with a random sharp object that I'll eventually find somewhere...

No, just kidding. I saw "I Know What You Did Last Summer" when I was seven. I have been afraid of sharp kitchen utensils ever since.

So suicide is out of the picture. Partly because I do not want to do that, and… partly because I do not want to do that…..

**(-sigh-)**

* * *

So it was another (ab)normal day at le Camp De Lac Verte. 

Yes…Normal….I should say so.

Because at this so very wonderful, extremely sunny, (ab)normal day THAT WAS NOT A DAY at Greenlake, someone came back.

Who came back, you ask?

I'll give you a hint…it was someone named… Magnet….

O.k. That wasn't really a hint…

Let's start over:

Who came back, you ask?

I'll give you a hint…it was someone named Magnet.

Dammit!

Let's do that again:

Who came back, you ask?

I'll give you a hint (-twitch- twitch)-…it was someone named (-twitch twitch-) Ma…ggg…n…

O.k.

I'll just go ahead and tell you…

It was Magnet.

HA HA! I BET YOU THAT NAME DIDN'T EVEN CROSS YOUR MIND!

(-ehem-)

Yes.

Ok.

* * *

That word came back. 

The word that made me think of how nice it would be if I was wrapped in a tight straight-jacket made of fire.

Dig.

The hot sun began to make my face tan unbelievably.

_Ice-cream._

"What?" I wiped sweat from my brow.

_Snow cone._

"Not you, again!"

_Aaaaiiirrr conditionerrrr._

"Please stop. Do you want me to die?"

_Penguin meat..._

"...ew."

I let out a frustrated sigh and forced myself not to listen to… myself.

That sounded scary.

Anyways…

The whole day, no one seemed to want to talk to me…or look at my pitiful, tanned face with a black eye that I got from bumping into a B-tenter. A VERY big B-Tenter.

Actually…that was the first time since I came to Greenlake that I had contact with someone besides D-Tent.

The story? Here goes:

-

I turned the corner of the Rec-Room (I mean Wreck Room) cabin and once more:

"OoF!"

I turned my head up…waaaay up to see a Hispanic guy much bigger than Armpit.

His eyes widened and his mouth opened, showing something so hideous in there I can't write it down or I will die of some rare psychological disease.

"Oh ma Gawd! Yous a girl!" He gobbled.

_And during these 7weeks, were you trapped in a giant septic tank where you had no way of knowing about the only girl in Greenlake?_

"MAN! Where were you, you fucking moron? DUH!" I said, tapping my skull over-dramatically.

The boysuddenly looked like a blowfish that had been forcefed with helium through a giant straw.

"What did you say to me?"

"Umm….."

He grabbed my collar.

"No one calls the **Masher** a Mormon!"

He began to tighten the grip around the collar of my jumpsuit.

"I said MOR_ON_, not MOR_M_ON, you fucking idiot."

He growled…I mean ROARED and lifted me up by my collar, choking me so hard things began to change color.

_Lydia! You are so fucking stupid!_

But the thing is, I hadn't been myself since that day those voices came to annoy the $# !)out of me. I don't think I've been myself since my parents died.

It was like I was another person. I wasn't saying those things. It was the girl who had wanted to come out of my mind for years now.

By then the "Masher" had my face turning blue and my feet dangling in the air.

"Say uncle." he said in a 4th grader bully tone.

"Yo mama!"

"Don't make fun of my momma!" he suddenly exploded with teary eyes. "It's not _her _fault they used animal testing on her because she had a beard!"

_Okeeey. Too much info._

I lifted my foot and brought it down so hard upon the boy's "equator" that he let go of me and doubled over in pain.

I ran as quickly as I could. Unfortunately, I slipped over a banana peal that was not a banana peal and fell hard on the ground that was not a ground.

They were imaginary banana peals and that was an imaginary ground.

Camp Greenlake is not real. This can't be real.

But it was. I felt that very real, enormous hand grab the back of my neck.

_This is going to be a loooong day._

"No one calls the Masher a Mormon…"

"Yeah, you said that already, Sherlock."

He lifted me up by my neck again.

"And no one kicks him in the nutts, either."

"I'm surprised you have even ONE."

You've doen it now." he said smiling menacignly.

He raised his other enormous, dirty hand and smashed my face-- **SMASHED.**

I think this crazed boy was going to kill me. I did.

_No DUH!_

Suddenly, I think God finally saw me. He SAW this humungous fatso with crazed, psychological problems strangling a fragile 14-year-old girl to death.

He saw her dark red hair breeze to one side as her head plopped lifelessly to the left.

She had stopped breathing.

God had finally seen me.

And he brought Fate down upon me to perform another miracle once again:

"I gowna kill you!" Masher growled in a psychotic way.

But I could barely hear him. I was almost unconscious. I was dead meat.

But the Dead Meat, like mostly everything in Camp Greenlake, was NOT dead meat.

Because Dead Meat had to be DEAD. But I was Not dead. N-O-T.

I opened my eyes to see a _shovel_ swing swiftly beside Masher's head and knock him over to the ground, bringing me down with him.

He was unconscious, that's how **hard** the shovel hit his enormous, thick skull.

My mind felt morphined. I lifted my head up, but it dropped back down.

"Mommy, why are there red spots all over the sky?"

I giggled and began licking the sand.

"It's not Mommy." said the voice that made electricity travel up my tired spine.

"It's Magnet."

I snapped my dizzy eyes open.

"WHAT?"

There it was. That face which had always come with a smile. Like an object in the clothes store always comes with a tag.

I squinted, and said in a drunken tone:

"Chuckles, is that you?"

He looked so disheveled. So dirty, but he still had that chirpy smile on his face.

"Oh My God." I choked.

"Chica, let's get you to Mom, Okay?"

"Oh My God. Oh My God."

He took my right arm and I didn't flinch like last time. I was just too limp. To tell you the truth, I felt like a noodle.

"O.k. Mouse, you'll have to get up yourself... I can't help you up... You're too fat."

"Oh My God."

"Mouse. I can tell you everything, but your forehead has red liquid all over it and I'm sure it's not cherry jelly."

I raised my trembling hand to my temple and brought it in front of my eyes. It was dripping with blood.

"Oh My God…"

"Now you see? Do you want to die with your last words being 'oh my God' or do you want to live and hear my story?"

I stared dumbfounded at his dust-smeared face and uttered:

"Mag---Oh My God."

Then guess what? I passed out.

Well, congratulations,Mousey. You managed to say something **useful **to the boy you thought you had killed.

Fortunately the boy I had killed was really NOT the boy I had killed because he isn't dead.


	15. Dwarves And M&M's

21

I opened my pained eyes to see seven little Dwarve**s** peering at my so-called "corpse".

All around me were trees and happy happy singing birds. And I was lying down in a glass coffin.

"Shh!" I said to the birds. "The Queen will find me!"

One of the dwarves, which had a toothpick in his mouth looked behind his shoulder and said:

"Mom, what's she saying?"

Suddenly, from behind a tree, the evil Queen herself appeared with a massive amount of sunscreen on her bulbous nose and a safari-hat placed upon her crown.

"She's probably just shocked, is all. Give her a few minutes." The Queen said.

"Oh Majestic Queen," I said, bowing my head, "Please don't send the huntsman to kill me because he's just going to tell me to run away."

The dwarf with the toothpick looked worried, "Mouse, it's me Squid."

"Squid?"

Suddenly the forest became the inside of the tent, the seven dwarves became the familiar D-Tent boys I knew so well.

The Queen transformed into Safari man, and the transformation taking place before me was just too much.

I screamed and screamed like I had a spider in my throat.

Wait? How can you scream if there's a spider in your throat?

Suddenly, the tent flap opened and Magnet came in.

I froze.

All eyes were now on Magnet. I guess they had known he was back for a while now.

"Goo' morning Chica."

_Morning?_

"Yeah, Morning." Armpit said. "You been out for a few hours, you know."

I looked around at everyone.

"Oh."

All eyes went to Magnet again.

"Mouse…tell Magnet to tell us what happened to him in the desert. He said he doesn't want to talk about it! Man, can you believe dat!?"

"Umm…."

I looked at my watch that was the only thing I owned of value.

3:35 A.M..

They all had woken up this early.

For me…

Pfft... idiots.

I sat up slowly, yet that still made my head spin.

"Say something, Lydia." Cave man urged. "Are you okay?"

"I want M&M's."

"What?" Squid asked, baffled.

"M&M's." I repeated in an odd, subtle way, "I want M&M's."

"Mouse. You're in Camp Greenlake. Camp Greenlake ain't got no M&M's." Armpit looked at me worriedly.

_Suddenly I feel sad all over._

"No—No M&M's?" I shook my head, blinking back my tears of great pain.

"Now why wouldn't you have M&M's?"

He, took one step towards the ratty cot I was sitting on.

He lifted his arms, then put them down. Then he lifted his arms again, and put them down.

He looked like a robot that someone accidentally spilled coffee on. Arms up, down. Arms up, arms down.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I was trying to give you a hug," he said sadly. "But my arms aren't working."

"That's ok, X-Ray. It's the thought that counts," I said, relieved. I hadn't let any other human being even touch me since I was a kid.

But Armpit looked impatient.

"Magnet, can you tell us what happened, pleeeeease?"

Smokey the Bear looked interested in the story, and he leaned forward in interest.

I gave him the 'get-out!---no-way-are-you-gonna-hear-any-of-this' look.

He scowled and left.

Imagine that! Smokey the Bear …SCOWLING…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA………..ha?

-EHEM-.

Well, we went to breakfast early, and Smokey the Bear gave us extra shower tokens for being "such good little kids."

No matter how many people begged Magnet to tell them what happened, he zipped his mouth shut!

When he got sent to the Warden, and she threatened him to tell her…he just said he would tell the inspectors that the camp left him in the desert to die if she did anything to him.

Everyone was surprised that someone DARED to talk to the Warden like that.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**----------OUT IN THE DESERT---------**

"So tell us! What happened in the desert? Or is that where you went?"

Magnet kept his eyes on the ground.

He was smiling slightly but he didn't say a word.

I didn't want to drag the words out, though I wanted so bad to know how he got to where he got.

Most people had given up. Even though the other tent groups had been whispering and giving looks when Magnet passed by.

After everyone had gone, Magnet looked relieved. But every once in a while, he would be looking at my direction giving the I-need-to-tell-you-something look.

Finally, I distinguished a shadow behind me.

Magnet was standing over my hole with a shovel in his hand.

_Déjà vu… _

"Please. I'm sorry about whatever strange things you saw in your trip to the desert."

He didn't flinch, so I continued;

"I know I killed you and you probably came back to life…I didn't mean to make people's lives an enormous hell…And…um…I'm sorry." I said

He didn't move.

"I'm sooooo evil! Please forgive me, O master! I didn't mean to make people disappear off the face of the Earth by my presence!"

I bowed exaggeratingly.

He smiled widely again.

_Man, you keep smiling like that and your kids will be born with permanent grins_.

Eew.

I shuddered.

"No. I actually came to tell you _**I'm**_ sorry." He sighed.

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry."

"Huh?"

"I said I'm really sorry I called you 'evil'."

"Huh?"

"Stop that."

"Huh?"

"Ok. Fine. Maybe I should have not saying anything." He said in his little accent.

Magnet turned around and headed for his hole that was almost finished for once.

"Huh?----I-I mean…WAIT. I really want to know what happened!"

His bandana flipped up as a breeze came out of nowhere and lifted it…

He looked like a Conehead, but I decided to keep that to myself…

"I don't know how to say in Inglés." He muttered.

"Ellos le dirán en sus sueños."

"What?" I cupped my ears like a deaf old woman.

"'**They will tell you in your dreams'."**

"When?"

"At Lights Out."

**DISCLAIMER: What's the point of writing these in every chapter? I don't own Holes, or any stories by Louis Sachar, but I DO wish I would some day make a story as well put together as "Holes".**

**/A.N./: Hello, Happy people!**

**Wow. I got the most fuck---I mean freakin' weird reviews. And most of these ppl. Are in my class…HOW DID U GET A HOLD OF MY STORY?**

**Leencz:**** Wow. My insanity had finally made you crack. Maybe you should stay away from me in school for a couple of days until you get your composure back… Well…thank you for the nice reviews…I think…**

**ArwenEvenstar:**** It doesn't really matter what kind of reviews you give because you always manage to write very nice ones in my opinion. I love them.**

**And don't make fun of the voices! It's dangerous!I did that and look what happened to me! The gnomes have stolen my sanity and they're coming to get yours! Run away!**

**Lilmizzrebel31:**** All will come in good time. I'm glad you like my story. I was trying to add as much mystery in it as I could…You'll se what happens to Magnet in the next chapter.**

**To all anonymous reviews except MeltedIcecreamIsMe and Bellatrix:**** I know it's you Czelene. Stop that, man! It's so annoying! And ur reviews have nuttin to do with my story…**

**Fk306 animelover:**** Wow. I don't know what to say…which is very rare for me…OoOoOoO! I know what to say!**

"**You're great, please review soon!" HAH! You have inspired my new catchphrase!**

**MeltedIcecreamIsMe & Bellatrix231:**** For real, I'm really sorry but I'm not good at romances unless I'm in the mood. But for the characters of D-Tent, I can't really imagine romances between them. They just remind me too much of the kids in my class. Except for X-Ray…which doesn't really remind me of anyone…**

**THE PLOT OF THIS STORY IS NOT A ROMANCE ONE. BUT THERE ****PROBABLY ****WILL BE ONE IN THE LAST FEW CHAPTERS…BUT I'M NOT SURE… **

**So just enjoy the fact that there is a real plot and a real ending to this mindless story and there aren't any girls here who want to kiss Squid many times on the lips and fall deeply in **_**lurve**_** with him**

**-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**


	16. Desert Dillusions, PART UNO

**----------LIGHTS OUT----------**

"They're not coming." I whispered.

"They're coming!" Magnet hissed.

"They're not coming."

"They're coming!"

"IT'S BEEN TWO HOURS!"

"Shhhh! Do you want the whole world to wake up?"

"Magnet! You should know that the world is divided into time zones! It can be nighttime here but it can be daytime on the other side of the world!" I said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"You know, someone should tear off your voice box." he said.

"Magnet. The voices aren't coming tonight."

He didn't listen

"Mag---"

A gust of wind came out from nowhere.

They had finally arrived.

_**Sorry we're late, we got lost.**_

"How could omnipresent spirits get lost?"

_**Look! Do you want to get this over with, or not?**_

"Umm…"

_**We're wasting precious time just so a nosygirl could find out what happened to a boy in a desert!**_

"What else do you have to do that's so important? Watch sand move?"

Magnet chuckled.

_**No laughing!**_

He stopped immediately.

**_Are you people ready? Get this over with._**

"Magnet, what are they talking about?"

"Eh…"

"All you said was that they would come tonight."

"They're going to possess you."

"Is there any form of blood-drinking involved? You know, I haven't had any of _that_ stuff for a long time." I liked my lips.

Magnet moved a few inches away.

_**Argghh! We can't wait any longer.**_

I felt wind sweep towards me and a chill went from the pit of my stomach, and up my spine.

Then there was a blinding light.

* * *

I was suddenly outside the D-Tent. It was dark and the stars were plentiful in the night sky.

"Where am I?"

_In the desert, Stupid!_

"Yes. But why am I here?"

Just then one of the tent flaps opened and Magnet rushed out of it.

X-Ray was behind him.

"Magnet, man. Talk to me!"

Magnet walked faster. But X-Ray caught up with him.

"Magnet! Just tell me: What did you say to Mouse today?"

_Ohhhhhh! This was the night Magnet disappeared._

Magnet just ran.

"Maaaagneeet!"

X-Ray suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

Magnet had disappeared.

Well actually that's what X-Ray thought.

Magnet had fallen into a hole.

Yes, a hole.

I sped towards the unlucky, stiff 15-year old in a 5-foot-deep hole.

"MAGNET! Are you okay?"

He didn't seem to hear me.

He staggered to his feet and scrambled out of the hole.

Oh. Right. No one can see me. Let alone hear me.

It's like in those movies where its only a flashback, or you're a ghost and you can't be seen or heard by anyone.

It's like Christmas Carol...That book with some old fart named Scrooge. This wasn't real, this was just a shadow of the past.Only it's NOT Christmas, and I'm flat broke.

By the look on his face, Magnet seemed to be thinking hard, and he seemed to be distracted by something deep in his mind.

Or he could be constipated.

Now the thing with Magnet, was that he liked to talk to himself. Please don't ask why…

"Yo lo encontraré. Yo lo encontraré,"

"What?"

"Yo lo encontraré."

He looked back at the camp, then at the vastness of the desert before him.

"Make a choice, Magnet."

"Yo no puedo creer que haga esto…"

He tightly closed his eyes and just ran towards the desert, further, and further away from the camp.

"Why I am doing this?" he asked himself.

"I don't know, papi! I'm just an invisible void of nothing and you are just a damn flashback."

-

Suddenly the whole thing _really _seemed like I was trapped in a movie because the moon sunk deep into the mountains and the sun bounced up…like someone was forwarding time!

I turned to my left. Magnet looked like he had aged years.

His face was redder and darker, and he had soaked his clothes with sweat.

Eew.

"Agua…" he panted.

"Agua…"

"Por Favor, deme agua , Dios."

Poor Magnet.

I felt so hopeless, so merciless just standing next to a dying Hispanic 15-year old.

_This is a flashback…it already happened and you can't redo it._

I sighed.

Poor Magnet.

Then suddenly;

There came, ironically, a flashback, IN a flashback. I was actually seeing what Magnet was remembering in his head.

-

"**_José! Come here! Venga adentro o yo daré a usted el cinturón!" _**

_**A woman was yelling from a doorway of a hut. She was carrying a baby.**_

_**This must be one of Magnet's flashbacks.**_

"_**No, Mami! Quiero para jugar!" **_

_**The small boy, who had been poking at a dead animal with a twig for a long time had stayed put.**_

"_**José! Come inside NOW!" The woman yelled. The baby in her arms woke up and began to cry.**_

"**_No quiero! Encontré algo, Mami!" He waved happily at her._**

_**The mother waddled out of the hut with a "flip flap" of her sandals.**_

"_**Venga lejos d'el gato muerto!" hhe shouted.**_

"_**No, Mami."**_

"_**José!"**_

"_**Get away from the dead cat! Come, José!"**_

"_**Mam,i! I want to keep it!"**_

_**The small boy lifted the dead cat up with two fingers. The rotting animal swinging from side to side.**_

"_**He is my friend!" **_

-

The strange thing was that I felt fine. I didn't feel hot, and I didn't feel cold. I wasn't extremely thirsty.

I couldn't _feel_ anything.

Unexpectedly, Magnet collapsed to his knees.

"Why did I do this?" he whined.

"Because you are a stupid boy who was affected mentally by all of the sand you inhaled in that hole."

There was a nauseating squawk heard above us as we spotted two buzzards swooping hungrily above their "breakfast".

"Magnet, you should go back." I said, forgetting thta this had already happened.

"Maybe I should go back…" he said to himself.

"Yes, exactly. Listen to your inner self. GO BACK! BACK, I SAY!"

"No." He gritted his teeth.

"No?"

" Ella depende de mi."

"There is something there!" he shouted to no one. "There is something there! They told me so."

That was when I finally got it:

The voices. My disgusting, putrid, evil ancestors had somehow gotten him to go into the desert to do something for them.

Then were using him!

Were they using me?

Then a blinding light hit my eyes and I was transported back to the populated community somewhere in Mexico:

-

"**_You are in big trouble!"_**

**_The woman grabbed the tiny 5-year old by the arm and tried to drag him into the house where at least twelve other brothers and sisters peered out to watch Magnet and his mother fight._**

"_**No, Mami! I can't leave him! He's my friend!" He began crying and looking sadly at the dead cat.**_

"_**José! It is dead!"**_

"**_Animals can't die, Mami !"_**

"_**Está muerto!"**_

**_Suddenly a very large, burly man came up behind the little Magnet and grabbed him by his hair._**

_**With cruel brutality, he lifted the naughty boy up by his hair.**_

"_**Go inside! NOW!" the man growled.**_

**_He dropped the boy and let him crumble onto the ground._**

"_**GO!"**_

_**The boy scurried into the tiny shack.**_

"**_José's in trouble! José's in trouble ! José's in trouble!" The eleven brothers and sisters chanted._**

**_The baby began crying in the woman's arms._**

"_**Oooh! You're gonna get the belt tonight !"a small little girl jeered.**_

"**_Leave me alone!" José pushed past the cruel, teasing brothers and sisters and went into the kitchen. _**

_**He cried, for he knew it would be hard to sit down on his ass for a couple of days after the humungous set of belt lashes he would be getting.**_

_**That's how hard his father beat him.**_

-

"Wow. I wonder how you managed to live so long." I muttered cruelly.

_**-**_

_**José sat slowly on his bed that he shared with 4 other brothers.**_

_**His behind hurt from the whip slashes he had gotten that night.**_

_**His father didn't do it to punish him. He just liked hurting people. It was his nature.**_

_**Someone knocked at the door. It was his mother.**_

"_**Hola." She smiled in compassion.**_

"_**Mami, I'm sorry!"**_

_**The woman went to the small boy's bed and lifted him up onto her lap.**_

"**_Your papi is very angry with you" she said._**

"_**I'm sorry Mami. But I didn't really DO anything! PlusGatito kittywas my friend!"**_

"**_Your new friend wants to be free outside, not in a tiny house."_**

_**His mother was about to sing him a lullaby, when;**_

"**_Maria¡ Sus niños! Ellos lo hicieron otra vez"!_**

_**His mother looked worried again and she quickly tucked José in his covers so tightly that he couldn't move.**_

_**In the background he could hear his father:**_

"_**One of your children left a dead gato on my chair! Look, Maria! It's going to stink up the whole place!"**_

"_**Now tell me which one of your children did thi---José!"**_

_**José , who couldn't move because of the tightly bound blankets he was in, was helpless as he heard the rumbling footsteps of his father come his way. **_

"_**CAN YOU EXPLAIN THIS, PLEASE?" The burly man held up the dead cat in his right hand.**_

"_**It was a present, Papi. I wanted to give you my new friend for your birday!" The little boy exclaimed from under the covers.**_

"_**And I'll give You the worst beating of your life!"**_

_**-**_

Magnet was staggering in weariness and pain.

"AGUA!" he screamed.

I didn't know what to do! This already happened: It was the past, and I'm only watching it like a video…Basically I couldn't really DO anything.

Again, the omniscient remote of time forwarded daytime to night.

This time we were right next to a mountain…actually a cliff.

_God's thumb…_

I recalled what the voices had said. As I looked up into the night sky, the silhouette of the top of the mountain revealed a shape of a hand with the "Thumbs-up" shape..

It was a freak of nature! A rock the shape of a hand doing the thumb's up sign! EGAD!

_Ohhhhhh! Now I get it! GOD'S THUMB!_

"God's thumb," Magnet and I uttered in unison.

"Wow…I feel all…..hypnotizey…"

Both of us, though I didn't need to, began to climb it. Magnet took one step up, and continued on up the rocky slopes.

-

**"_Papi! NO!"_**

_**The man stomped loudly towards the trembling boy and ripped the suffocating blankets from the bed.**_

**"_You are going to get the beating of your life!"_**

_**José's bottom lip quivered.**_

**_"I hate you!" Jose said, standing up on the bed. "I hate you and I'm never going to speak to you again!"_**

**"_DON'T TALK TO ME LIKE THAT! GET UP!"_**

_**José was dragged from the bed as his father grasped his leg and lugged him from his bed. The other brothers and sisters had woken up. But they dared not utter one word for they would also be in José's position too.**_

_**Well you know what happened after that…**_

_-_

The flashback drew itself away from my vision.

I realized we were half way up the mountain.

Why do I keep calling it a mountain? It's a cliff-giant-rock-thumb-shaped-thingy. God!

Magnet kept on climbing, slowly, one inch after another in incredible pain that subsisted in his whole existence.

Me, on the other hand…since I basically didn't exist…I was floating effortlessly up the cliff-giant-rock-thumb-shaped-thingy.

"Climb Faster, you lazy pile of horse manure! Put your back into it!" I screamed happily and sadistically into his red ear.

It was that moment I realized I **was** evil.

"You call that moving? I've seen glaciers race across the northern hemisphere faster than you!"

God help me…I'm turning into my ancestors.


	17. Desert Dillusions, PART DOS

22

I swear, he was hypnotized: his eyes were so dark it wasn't human. And though his body showed exhaustion, his face showed the blankness of nothing.

"Why are we even going up this damn hill? WHY ARE WE EVEN HERE?" I shouted at him.

That was me, by the way. Magnet was too out-of-this-world to even utter the word "Pain".

"P-p-pain". He croaked.

O.k. I was wrong.

The flashback continues:

_BANG! BANG! BANG!_

"_Papi! Let me out!" He beat the door with his fists as hard as he could._

_His father had locked him in a closet._

"_NOW YOU STAY IN THERE AND THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"_

"_I did! I did, Papi! I was thinking and now I want to go!" he sobbed._

_His merciless father had locked him in the closet. _

_This had never happened to him. José was the good boy, the sweet baby of the family._

_The only person who had been locked up in this closet was his oldest brother. He was in there for 26 hours._

_When he came out, his eyes had something that was never there before and he was never the same after that._

_José stopped banging the wall when he couldn't feel his fists anymore._

_He leaned his back against the wall and wrapped his arms around his legs as he sat down._

_His crying quieted down to uncontrollable sobbing, and then hiccupping sniffles._

_After what seemed like eternity, he fell asleep._

_-_

I faced the now unfamiliar boy who was climbing with all his strength to do this whole stupid journey.

He seemed so different, now. He's not Magnet anymore.

He's some kid who liked animals even when they were dead and who was abused brutally by his father.

I could cry if I wanted to, you know. But since I was technically a formless being in a flashback, I could do no more than watch this torture take place.

I looked above us. We were almost to the top. Something, I don't know what it was, but it kept me from going ahead of Magnet to the top of the cliff.

Then, I saw it coming.

BEWARE THE DREADED FLASHBACK!

-

_SQUEAK! SQUEAK!_

_José was woken by the tiny noises of a tiny creature hidden in the tiny room._

_Tiny._

_Even time seemed to be tiny for him now._

_He tiredly opened his eyes as he realized he was still in the closet. It wasn't a dream. _

_And where was his mother during all this?_

_SQUEAK! SQUEAK!_

_There was enough light that peeked into the closet from the outside._

_That made him see what was making that hardly audible noise:_

_A mouse. _

_A furry black mouse with two white stripes down the middle of its tiny head._

"_What are you doing here, little ratón?"_

_It replied with a muted Squeak._

"_Are you here to keep me company? Huh, Criatura pequeña?"_

_SQUEAK._

_Its teardrop, black eyes stared at him intently with curiosity._

_José picked it up, and the strange creature didn't bother to run away._

"_You are my only amigo." _

_He held the petite delight close to himself as if he was protecting it._

"_Please don't leave me like everybody else did." He whispered to it._

_SQUEAK! SQUEAK! SQUEAKEDY SQUEAK!_

_(TRANSLATION: Please don't squeeze me. You are going to pop my skull and I will be just one more addition to your collection of "friends")_

_-_

I blinked.

We were practically at the top of God's Thumb!

Almost there, Magnet!

"Climb faster! Think of how your great-grandmother will do a victory dance after she's beaten you in the Boston Marathon!" I screamed in his face.

He didn't notice, of course.

He grunted as it became more and more difficult for him to continue onwards.

-

_José held the baby mouse in one hand, and pet it gently with his chubby fingers with the other hand._

"_Do you have a name?"_

_SQUEAK!_

"_Ohhhh…Squeak: that's a nice name."_

_**SQUEAK!**_

"_Oh…Not your name?"_

_SQUEAK! SQUEAK! It replied in it's high pitched ring._

"_Maggie? Is that your name?"_

_Then his expression changed into a worried look._

"_How did I know that?"_

_SQUEAK!_

_-_

Maggie?

Now why is that name familiar?

Oh, yeah!

I once had a chia pet named Maggie…

No. that's not it.

…

MAGGIE!

That was the name my father wanted to name me.

I can picture it now:

My mother, lying peacefully in a hospital bed, smiling and holding a baby in her arms.

Me.

My father comes into the room and laughs joyously when he sees me.

"What do we name her?" Mommy asks.

"Well…ever since my great grandmother had a boat named Maggie. And I've always liked that name---"

"I like 'Lydia." She interjected…My mother always got her way.

"Don't you think Maggie's a nice name?"

"Um…Were YOU the one in labor for 20 hours? Don't I deserve to at least give her the name?"

"Of course you can, sweetie."

-

**My dad had called me "Maggie" once in a while. And he told me the story of how Onion Sam had made a boat for Kissin' Kate Barlowe and he had named it Maggie after his mother.**

**She was still 'Katherine' then and she would secretly row the boat out to Sam's onion field on the other side of the lake.**

It just made me wonder of how much two people could love each other.

It's pretty corny, but I've seen pictures of my mother and father when they were younger and they looked so happy.

"Maggie" must have been an important part of Katherine's heart. I could just tell. It meant a lot to her.

And, as many things have been these past few weeks at G.C.L., it might have been a coincidence.

Yes.

Coincidence.

Armpit's sister who died…her name was Maggie. He told me one time in the Rec Room when no one was around.

And Magnet's pet mouse was named Maggie.

-

_An hour had passed, and José had tried screaming for someone to get him out, but no one had probably even noticed. If they did, his father would have told them not to go near the closet._

"_I'm bored, Maggie."_

_SQUEAK!_

_He heard the radio distinctly from the next door neighbor's. He always played the music loud for the whole neighborhood to hear._

_José sang along…_

"_Estoy loco…Estoy loco…Estoy loco por tu mi amor…."_

_Then something happened that José would remember for the rest of his life…_

_Maggie the Mouse began to **hum**!_

_Sure it was cute! And creepy at the same time._

_Magnet had heard this tune before. Or maybe he thought he had._

_The mouse hummed the tune in a high pitched tone. (This reminded me of the 3 singing mice in that movie "Babe".)_

_And José sang along._

"_If only, if only,_

_The woodpecker sighs_

_The bark of the tree was as soft as the skies_

_While the wolf waits below_

_Hungry and lonely_

_He cries to the moo-oo-oon_

_If only, if only."_

_-_

Is this whole thing a dream? Am I really in a place called Camp Greenlake?

I stared wide-eyed at surprise and shock at Magnet, who didn't notice whatsoever.

"HOOOLY SHIIIII------"

But I was trailed off by a strong force pulling me through the thick air.

Every muscle tensed and then turned into mush.

Every feeling, every smell, every taste, everything just became…nothing.

A few seconds passed…nothing.

Until the recognizable white light filled my vision.

I was back in D-Tent. Actually they called D-Tent-and-a-half.

Magnet was looking at me with such an appearance on his face I couldn't describe.

"So? Did you really go back in time?" He asked.

"Maggie." I cleared my throat. "I know about Maggie."

A look of understanding had arisen in his eyes.

"Yeah. Maggie." He looked down on the floor. "I have not seen her since I came here."

"There is something hella funny going on."

Magnet laughed, thinking I was trying to make a joke.

"No. I mean FUNNY like; there is something strange going on."

"Maggie. Armpit had a sis---" I remembered promising Armpit not to tell anyone about Maggie.

"Armpit knew someone named Maggie. You had a mouse named Maggie. And I have a kind of connection with that name."

"Mouse." He shivered. "I am a little bit of the scared."

"I think my great great grandmother wants me to get to something before someone else does."

_**FINALLY! THAT'S WHAT WE'VE BEEN TRYING TO GET YOU TO FIGURE OUT! MAN, KIDS THESE DAYS!**_

"O.k.….ancestor people…you can leave now." I shoed them away with my hand like I was flicking away a bad smell.

_**You don't have to tell us twice. We're outta here. **_

"WAIT!" I held up a hand.

"Is my great grandmother, I mean is Kate Barlowe with you guys?"

_**No………we haven't gotten any trace of her since she died.**_

And with a gust of wind, my ancestors had left.

My head whipped in Magnet's direction.

"I'm tired." I forced a yawn. "Goodnight, José."

"It's MAGNET!" He hissed.

He got up and walked towards the tent flap that lead directly to his tent.

But he turned around.

"But you can call me José if you want."

"Goodnight Jo."

"My name's pronounced with an "H"……**Hosé**.." Magnet looked uncomfortable.

"Oh…ok…."

-silence-

"Goodnight, Jo."

He mumbled something definitely NOT in English as he slumped out of my tent.

I shuffled my tired feet towards the cot and literally plunged onto it.

I went to sleep even before my head hit the pillow.


	18. The Bitch

**Disclaimer: I do not own Holes or any other familiar writings that you read here.**

**The strange words that a man With A Rifle will be saying is in Arabic. A very sucky Arabic because even though I've studied it for five years, I don't know more than 20 words…**

**--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**-------AFTER LIGHTS OUT-------**

"_Faster, Lydia! Do you want us to get caught?" Jack (the older brother that ruined my pathetic life in chapter one) was tugging at my wrist furiously, running as fast as he could._

"_Jack-Jack! I don't want to run anymore!" I gasped, practically being violently dragged as my brother pulled me a he raced across the road._

_-_

_You see, he had stolen some sort of valuable thinger-majig from the rich man who lived up the hill._

_He wanted me to come with him because I was small enough to fit through the tiny window and steal this valuable, shiny object, which I don't know what it was to this day._

_All you need to do is climb into this window, and get what I told you to get. Then run out as quickly as you can. I'll be waiting outh here, okay?" He pushed me roughly into the narrow slit of a window._

"_I'm scared!"_

"_GO IN NOW!"_

_The stealing went very smoothly; I went in, got the stolen "object" and tried to go out the window. That's when things went very, very wrong._

"_JACK-JACK! I'M STUCK!" I screamed._

_From the background:_

"_Ya Atfal 'Ady!" said the Arab man with the riffle, heading towards us at enormous speed. The man raised his weapon over his head and shot a bullet of thunder into the sky._

"_JAAAACK-JAAAACK! PLEASE GET ME OUT!"_

"_Why are you so useless!" He spat as he grabbed the stolen object from my tiny fingers, leaving me stranded in between the window and a nail that caught my dress._

_He grabbed a hold of each of my arms and pulled so hard, I think I might have stretched a few inches._

_With an almighty tug, Jack managed to pull me out._

"_Are you okay?"_

"_Yeah." I said shaakily._

"_NOW RUN!"_

_And that's what we did. We ran and ran and ran, hearing the occasional gunshota and, "STOP! POLICE! YA ALLAH! OO'ALLIAK!"_

_Jack suddenly pulled me down into a tunnel just under the road._

_I cried **so loudly** I think the world could hear me even with the volume of Matallica turned up._

"_Shhh!" Jack hissed._

_But I didn't shut up. I went on and on with the screaming and wailing._

"_Quiet! He's gonna find us!"_

"_WHERE'S MOMAAAAYYY?" I wailed._

"_She's at home. The quieter you are, the faster we'll see Mommy." He urged._

"_I WAAAAANT MOOOMAAAAY!" _

_That's when he did it._

_He slapped me hard on the face._

"_SHUT UP!"_

_And he said the words I would always remember;_

"_THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE WHO ARE ALWAYS LESS LUCKY THAN YOU! ALWAYS!"_

_I stopped. Immediately._

_And I took a deep breath._

"_I'm sorry Jack-Jack." I tried to stop the hiccupping sniffles as my big brother put his arm around me and gave me a fake hug._

"_I'm" (-sniffle-) "sorry, Jack-Jack." (-sniffle-) "I love you as much a Mommy."_

_He gave me a fake kiss on the forehead and forced the words, "I love you too."_

_-_

_The next day he was arrested and I never saw him again._

…_Until that day when he framed me._

-

I was awakened by sobbing and crying.

Most of you reading this would guess who is crying already and skip over it because you know what's going to happen,.. **_OR_** read on, thinking I will kiss him passionately on the lips and tell him everything would be okay.

-

_(-Sniffle-) (-Choke-) (-Sniffle-)_ Came the annoying ambiance that awakened me.

I tossed and turned, trying very hard to sleep.

For about three weeks, I had had two hours of sleep or less. And every time I tried to close my eyes for more than 12 seconds something would jolt me awake.

(-Sniffle-) (-Choke-) (-Sniffle-) (-sob-)

"Please, please let this be a dream. Maybe the crying is just a dre---"

_It's not a dream. Get out of bed and shut him up, whoever he is!_

It took many tries for me to even open my eyes.

I crept out and opened the tent flap.

Everyone was sleeping.

-Armpit farted-

I held my breath and almost passed out, afraid that if I had inhaled an atom of air, I would die of intoxication.

(-Sniffle-) (-Choke-) (-Sniffle-) (-sob-)

"Caveman?"

The sniffle was cut short and there was a silence.

"Caveman, stop crying and give people some peace."

The strange thing was, I'm not a light sleeper. No matter tired I am, the monotonous dripping of water in the tap could even wake me up.

I made some pretend ruffling noises to act like I was going back into my section of the tent.

(-Sniffle-) (-Choke-) (-Sniffle-) (-sob-) He started crying again.

I opened the flap again in lightning speed.

"AHA!" I said a little too loudly.

Some people ruffled and shuffled around, and then stopped.

I caught the shuddering of Squid's silhouette as he struggled from the automatic hiccups that people get after crying.

I went back, grabbed my pillow, and marched quietly, but angrily to Squid's cot.

"What's wrong?" I asked, trying to sound soft and caring, even though my hair was a mop of brambles and my face had rings around the eyes.

Squid pretended to be asleep.

"Squid…"

He turned slowly and wiped his eyes, obviously pretending I had just woken him up.

"Y-you woke me up." His voice was groggily distant.

"No I didn't." I stated. "Why are you crying in the middle of the night?" I tried again very hard to sound kind and worried.

"Allergies. It happens."

"Shit happens." I sighed. "But you don't see me rolling around in it, do you?"

He backed away.

"It's just…my mom…I finally got a letter from her but…"

So he went on for what seemed like hours pouring out what he'd been holding in his heart for so long.

He began crying again when he started talking about his family.

I sat down too hard on his cot and it bounced a little.

I gave him a hug, which took all the power I had in me because it was so hard to lift up my arms. That's how tired I was.

He cried even harder.

"It's okay…umm…Alan."

He stopped and I saw the form of his head raise in the shadows.

"What?" He sounded angry.

_Uh oh…_

"Squid…I said Squid…" I stuttered, temporarily forgetting about everyone's names. "Not Alan... NOT ALAN!"

(-silence-)

"Really. I said _'Squid'_…" I cleared my scratchy throat.

Squid shook his head. "Alan. Who's Alan again? I don't know anyone named----"

"Shut the fuck up and go to sleep. I know your name is Alan, okay?"

I think he actually whimpered in fear…but he did what I told him to.

I sleepily raised my hand and awkwardly patted him on the back.

My shoulder really hurt, but I didn't say anything.

"O.k. So I guess I'll be going now." I said when he had stopped sobbing. I was imagining my cot singing to me.

_Mouse... mouse... _

"No! Can you just stay her until I fall asleep?" He asked like a four-year old who woke up after hearing a thunderstorm.

He probably missed having someone to be his mother…but I'M NOT HIS MOMMY!

_Be a man, dammit! Can't you see I'm going to die of exhaustion?_

Instead, I said,

"Of course…umm…-coughAlancough-."

And he dropped his head onto his pillow. I thought he was asleep.

I don't know why, but I started singing.

Singing always made me think of my mother.

I did what my mom used to do when I would run to her room in fear during a thunderstorm at night.

"If only, if only the wood pecker sighs. The bark of the tree was as soft as the skies…while the wolf waits below…hungry and lonely. He cries to the moo-oo-oon… if only, if only."

"Mouse?"

(-yawn-) "What?"

"She's in a coma."

"What?"

"My mother…she almost died. They found her in the bathroom with her wrists torn open and a suicide note in her pocket." He began sobbing again.

"They sent me the suicide letter and I got it today."

His crying had gotten really loud. I was surprised no one woke up.

"I (-sniffle-) HATE HER!"

_I can't take this anymore._

That's when I said it;

"Waaaaaa…" I said quietly, imitating his pathetic crying.

"Wh-what?" Squid sounded shocked.

"Waaaa! Somebody call the Whaaaaaambulence…"

"Mouse, did you just----"

"My parents are dead. Unlike you, I actually BOTHERED to love someone in my family that hates me. Stop crying and get to sleep, you pathetic dweeb."

Squid, though I couldn't see him in the darkness, was probably plotting my very assassination in his mind at the moment.

"How could you…say that?" he asked with such hurt.

"'Ooooh no! My parents died!... WELL BOO, FUCKING, HOO!"

Suddenly I stopped.

Was I really saying this?

What the hell is happening to me?

Am I really going insane?

Lord of Happy Pandas, I need a prozac.

There was an agonizing hurt and pleading tone in his chortling voice.

"Oh…ok…uh…g-goodnight then." he said sadly.

And I could tell he couldn't believe what I said.

I had to get out of this evil place.

_Back! Back to the cot, I say! BACK!_

Well, that's what my legs tried to do…but they wouldn't budge.

The Sandman had finally come to pay me a visit.

"Legs!" I hissed at my immobile limbs, "If you don't move right now I will---"

I fell asleep.

Right on Squid's feet, which smelled fondly of corn.

I tried to keep my head up…I swear I did.

But my eyes were so heavy. Just so…heavy.

And I finally got the best sleep I had since my life was annihilated just over a month ago.

_That night I dreamt of fluffy, white bunnies._

"Bunnies are good."

_Shut up, I'm trying to dream._

"Sorry."


	19. Sanity is Precious

**NOTE:  
The character MOUSE is not based after me...incase one of you were thinking. Seriously, if I was in Mouse's place, I'd probably choke Squid with a melted rubber duckie...(-looks around nervously-)...**

**STORY:  
**

**Some people also commented about the "Voices" people: The 'Ancestors' are based on my family. Just today, my sister chased me with a hammer. Yes. A Hammer.**

24

"Mouse."

My nose twitched.

"Mouse!" Came the hoarse whisper.

My right eye opened, then closed.

"Mouse, wake up."

I didn't move.

There was no sound. Suddenly I elt sand being pored into my ear.

"Elephants…no!...Don't eat my corset! No!" I whimpered.

He shook my shoulders.

"Mouse, you fell asleep here…and you wrinkled Twippo's blanket!. Get off! You're hurting Twippo!"

With anguish and tears seeping into my stinging eyes, I raised my head.

"OW!"

My neck hurt so bad I thought it was going to snap off.

I was sleeping in the worst position: I was sitting down (yes, sitting down while sleeping) next to Squid's cot and my head was cranked to the side for hours since I had fallen asleep.

I moved my head from side to side, feeling the _Crrrack _of my neck.

"Who's Twippo?" I asked, batting my eyes innocently at him.

Squid looked scared and he quickly hid something behind his back.

"Twippo? …I never said Twippo…You were imagining it…Twippo! Um…No…Twippo's just in your imagination…You IMAGINED Twippo…IMAGINED."

"Whatever…I don't want to know about your sex toys."

Squid looked shocked:

"Don't talk about Twippo that way!"

When I looked up, Squid was sitting up on his bed. His hair was sticking out in all directions and I felt the frightening urge to flatten it until it was as flat as his face.

He looked embarrassed and speechless.

"I'm sorry." Was all he could muster.

"I'm sleepy." Was all **_I _**could muster.

"Mouse, don't tell anybo----"

But I had tiredly gotten up without a word and almost _sleep-walked _like a zombie to my section of the tent.

And I left Squid there with a tired, yet hurt expression on his face. There was what seemed to be a large, red pimple in the middle of his nose.

_Ha ha! Look at his face! Look!_

"I don't want to look at his face. I want to close my eyes and sleep for more than at least 2 hours a day."

_Just look at the face, dammit!_

"But I don't want to!"

_Bitch._

"Control freak."

_Nazzi._

"Hitler."

_Stupid… dumb…uh…thing._

"Ha ha, I'm winning."

_I thought you're supposed to be tired._

"You woke me up."

_You were already awake before I pissed you off._

I slapped myself in the face.

* * *

It was only 20 minutes when I heard the familiar CLANG! CLANG! Of Smokey the Bear (a,k,a, Dr. Pendanski) and his annoying kitchen pan.

I was expecting the "Rise and Shine…New Hole New Day" thing but Good Old Smokey had thought up of a splendidly new catchphrase! HOORAH!

It was:

"WAKEY WAKEY, EGGS AND BAKEY!"

_I wish I was dead. _My mind complained in its morbid fascination of killing its own body.

"Yeah. At least that way we could finally get some sleep." I had finally agreed with my own mind on something.

Oh. My. God. I said **_WE_**.

**_We_** could finally get some sleep.' I'm turning into a psycho.

Beware the evil camp that makes people talk to themselves. BEWARE!

-

I got dressed and cleaned up without someone coming into my room to tell me to.

Digging holes was what I least looked forward to.

"Morning, muñeca." The happy Magnet said, patting my back.

I replied with a sleepy smile.

"I have something to give you after you finish digging your hole. I found it on God's Pinky" he chirped.

"God's THUMB... stop getting your words wrong and learn some English, loser."

Magnet gave me a hurt smile and walked away.

I think it must have taken 15 minutes to make my first shovelful.

I was just so tired.

Squid passed by, dragging his shovel happily behind him, whistling some annoyingly blissful happy tune.

"What's up lil' girl." He smiled as though he had won the lottery.

I was braindead; I actually lifted my head and _looked UP_ when he asked me _what's **up**._

Big mistake.

The blinding sun stabbed my eyes with EVIL sunrays and made me see nothing but blue and white spots..

"Mouse, are you okay?" Squid asked as he stepped forward.

I rubbed my eyes vigorously, then glared at him with demonic anger.

"You think that was funny didn't you?" I asked in a voice I never knew I had.

"Mouse?"

"You think it's funny to ask a girl 'what's up' and trick her into looking **up** at the sky. Do you?" I demanded from a voice not my own.

Most of the boys had stopped digging, and gazed worriedly at me.

"Mouse, are you a'aight?" Asked X-Ray.

I didn't answer, but I screamed at Squid.

"Well you can just take back all the 'Mouse, are you alright' because I know you are just a robot being remotely controlled by aliens hidden inside one of these holes!"

ZigZag gasped and covered his mouth. He pointed at Squid with a shaking finger.

"Squid? You really _are_ an alien ---"

"Man, Shut up about the aliens!" X-Ray said disgustedly.

"Mouse, we need to get you back to the camp. You're acting weird. Mom will----"

But I had jumped back into digging my hole.

The boys exchanged glances and Caveman shrugged.

Just two hours later I finished digging and looked forward to retreating to my Private Tent for some solitude.

_Ah! Solitude!_

"Didn't I tell you to shut up?"

Just before I was going to leave; I heard;

_"You forgot to spit in your hole, Mouse."_

I wiped off sweat from my sleeve.

"What?" I snapped.

_Spit in your hole. I COMMAND YOU._

"I'm not going to listen to you any longer. From now on I make my _own_ decisions." I replied snobbily.

_I AM YOUR **BRAIN**! HOW CAN YOU MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS AGAINST YOUR BRAIN? _

I shrugged.

"Jack the Ripper did."

I left the digging site, not noticing the curious stares that followed me behind my back.

* * *

----------SEVEN HOUIRS LATER----------

**----------ZIGZAG'S P.O.V.----------**

"Dude, have you seen Mouse?"

"She's in her hole."

"I can't see her from here."

"Go check if she's there. For all we know, she could be tying her Barbie doll to a pole and offering it to the Gods"

Magnet stepped out of his hole and peeked into the undug gap on the ground that people call…_a hole_.

He seemed to be sitting there for a while, just looking into the 3-and-a-half-foot hole.

"Magnet, why are you still there? Is she in her hole or not?" X-Ray demanded.

He turned around with a worried smile on his face.

"See for yourself." He said.

All of us, even Zero dropped out shovels to see what was going on.

Mom had temporarily driven to camp to get another shovel. (Armpit sat on it and it broke).

We peered over the hole and saw Mouse sitting, curled up with her back to the wall and her eyes tightly shut.

She was hugging her shovel like it was a teddy bear.

"She's sleeping." …..Armpit liked to state the obvious.

"What do we do?"

"We wake her up. Mom will be back any minute." X-Ray said, although a bit doubting his own words.

"I asked her about that a few days ago. She told be she hears _voices _at night and she couldn't get any sleep." Caveman explained like he knew everything.

"Dude, she's going crazy." X-Ray whistled.

"She's not crazy!" Zero snapped.

Everyone turned to him in surprise.

"Zero just tawked without nobody tellin' him to!" Squid gasped and everyone stared at Zero like he had grown a second face.

Zero rolled his eyes.

People who roll their eyes scare the crap outta me, you know. Especially with Zero. I never roll my eyes… They might pop out of my head, and then Mouse will never stop laughing at me.

Mouse laughs at everything. Even herself.

"She's not crazy." Zero repeated. "You never know…maybe the voices are not just in her imagination…"

I nodded.

So did Caveman.

The three of us knew what was going on:

_Outerspace chickens have floated over our tent and used Mouse's brain as an experiment._

"Dawg, you are some twisted freak." Armpit said.

"WHY DON'T YOU MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS AND STOP READING PEOPLE'S MINDS!" I shouted.

"It's not like I can help it."

We all just sat there, and watched her, curled up with the shovel in her arms.

"La la la la….-tee hee-…...pandas…..." She murmured in her sleep.

"I is am think we just leave her there." Magnet finally said.

"Man, your English sucks." Armpit laughed like Santa Claus.

"Chut up. I bet you can't even say ONE word in Spanish."

"Burrito."

Magnet frowned.

All of us went back to digging.

* * *

----------2 HOURS LATER----------

**----------MOUSE'S P.O.V.----------**

I don't know how long it had been.

But I woke up and it was very bright; mid-afternoon.

_Oh No! How long have I been asleep?_

I got up so fast, things went dizzy.

"DIG!" I suddenly shouted randomly.

I grabbed my shovel, stood up, and patted the dust off my orange jumpsuit.

Dig.Dig.Dig.

I repeated mechanically, panicking for no reason.

That's when I realized:

My hole was **done**. It was finished. I measured it and it was 5' by 5'.

Wait…

…this isn't my hole.

I peered over the top and looked for _my _hole.

Someone had moved me to another hole! How? I don't know.

There was someone there, in the hole I was supposed to dig, doing it for me…

It was Zero.

I scrambled out of the hole and walked to my hole that Zero was so…politely digging for me.

"Hello." I said plainly.

He jumped and looked at me with frightened eyes.

"I- I thought you were going to wake up later…so I started finishing this---"

"How did you get the chance to move my 52 kilo whale-of-a body?"

"I didn't. Armpit helped me. We didn't know where else to put you…"

"_PUT_ me?"

"I mean…um…"

"---Thanks." I interrupted, (before he could do any more damage).

I jumped in, helping him finish his…I mean _my _hole and we went back to camp together.

On the way, Zero said something that surprised me:

"You know, I'm not stupid."

"I never said you were stupid."

"Yes you did. The Voices told me all you ever talked about was how stupid I was."

I was taken aback.

"Zero, from now on, if you hear the voices, you cover your ears, okay?"

"No…I can't. I've finally met family…"

"What do you mean?"

"One of those voices stood out from the rest. She said she was my great-great-great grandmother."

"And?"

"Well…she said I had to go away from here."

I shook my head.

"No. Those people aren't even PEOPLE anymore! Don't trust them, even if they…(-ehem-)…bribe you with candy…."

Zero sighed.

"I'm not diggin' anymore holes."

"What's that supposed to----"

Zero turned his head away from me, as if he was ashamed of a decision that he had made.

"I'm not diggin' anymore holes."

* * *

**Oh oh!...I've gotten more than 10 reviews in less than 24 hours! HOORAH!**

**ArwenEvenstar83: YES! It is from the movie, The Kid. After watching it, my family's been using it for many -ehem-...occasions.**

**leenz: What the hell? You live a few blocks away from me and you HAVE to ask why Lydia's a bitch.**

**Fk 306 animelover: You are great, please review soon. (lol) I saw some reviews of chikapaladin in other stories too...she likes writing about periods...yeah...that's weird...but don't let it get you down...I LIKE your story. I'm probably going to get a flame too, sooner or later. But I'm probably going to delete it anyway...(-tee hee-)...but whatever advice is in the Flame, i will take. Flames soemtimes help. In your case, the flame was just...mean...**

**Nosilla: Yo, bunnies are gangstas! Yeah! You talk to a bunny, and you're considered da bomb. Yo!**

**D-Tent'sGirl101: Oh! -nod-nod-. i get it now. Wow, you really like my story? Please update yours...I want to know what happens when...(or if) the Warden finds out...muhaha!**

**Lilmizzrebel31: Hello, my top reviewer. Please don't kill Mouse yet! I made her! I am her creator! And I rarely finigh anything I start making! By the way, I finished reading your Peter Pan one..  
When are you going to update it? Or is it the end? I really like it. Did I really give you an idea-thingy?What was it?...O.k. Enough with the questions. Thanks for reviewing!**


	20. A Loving Family

**NOTE:**

**If someone is reading this story very quickly, I pity you. Your eyes are probably popping out of your head, or something. One time I read more than 40 chapters off "Camp Lakeway", another fanfiction, and my eyes wouldn't move.**

**BRIGHT LIGHT! BRIGHT LIGHT! AAAAAARGH!**

**Okay. Sugar high is gone now…**

**-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**-------LETTERS-------**

We were all relaxed on our cots in the tent because that day was especially scorching hot like the inferno it was.

No one would last a day out there.

"Um…Mouse…" Caveman asked, picking at his blisters, "Can I borrow your gloves, just for one day?"

I looked down at my hands. The only time I'd ever taken off my gloves were to wash my hands, or to clean my gloves. I guess i never really thought of what would happen if I took them off. I'd always thought they'd be there forever.

Caveman smiled sweetly whilst picking disgustedly at his macabre scabs, unaware of what was going on in my contradictional brain.

He peeled one of them too fast and it started to bleed.

_Oh well._

"Sure," I was ready to take one thin, navy blue glove off my hand, but hesitated. "Tomorrow, okay?"

Just then Safari Man barged in with that exultant smile of his.

"We've got mail, today!" He practically shouted at the top of his lungs.

Most people had looked up.

Squid and Armpit just looked at the floor and fidgeted. Zero was motionless

And sure enough; the only people who had gotten letters were Caveman, Magnet, even ZigZag and X-Ray……and…Oh My God…and…ME!

Magnet had gotten a letter from his mother, but it was written in Spanish, and it would be a miracle if I repeated it.

-

_Ricky;_

_I am obliged to write you this letter because I had a dream that you were captured by rabid penguins and you needed my magic telekinetic mind powers to release you from your imprisonment in laser cages they had built for you._

_Please reply to this letter because I am getting quite worried,_

_Your sister_

_(you already know my name but for safety purposes, I cannot write it down for the penguins are reading this letter over your shoulder this very second.)_

ZigZag lifted his head up as his hair bounced animatically. He looked over his shoulder nervously and his eyes widened twice their size.

-

_Dear, dear Rex;_

_How's my little Rexie-poo?_

_I am missing you sooooo much and I can't wait until you finally get out of that nasty place! I bet you they don't even provide fabric softeners!_

_I wanted to send you some cookies, but I read in an article that the cardboard will seep into the cookies and cause cancer…_

_I'd like to know how you're doing._

_Hugs and kissies! XoXoXoXoXoXoXo_

_Grandma_

_-_

X-Ray's face turned bright red as Armpit grabbed the letter from him and he read it in front of everyone, imitating an old lady's voice.

Everyone burst into uproarious laughter at the end and Rexie poo---I mean X-Ray tore the letter away from Armpit's enormous hands.

Caveman was the only one not laughing.

"Your Grandma sounds really nice, Rex." He said. Everyone gawked at Caveman incredulously at what he said but he didn't seem to notice.

-

_Dear Stanley;_

_My baby!_

_Please tell me more about this exciting camp that you've been so eagerly writing about in your last letter. I feel like one of the other moms who can afford to send their kids to camp._

_Papa's not having much **luck** (which we never had in the first place) and the landlord is threatening to evict us._

_Please send me another one of those letters because it would bring sunshine into my day, and remember there is someone out there who thinks about you every moment._

_Remember that I love you very much and DON'T YOU EVER FORGET IT!_

_Mom_

_-_

This time no one laughed. Caveman had awkwardly read his aloud because X-Ray had forced him to, after what had happened to him.

They all stared guiltily at the floor, being more silent than the dead.

"Your mom loves you a lot, doesn't she?." Zero had finally come out of his darkness and spoke.

Caveman nodded slowly, yet happily. He didn'r notice the jealous expression on Squid's sullen face.

"Read us _yours_, Mouse." Armpit raised his head in my direction, looking at the envelope in my sweaty hands.

_Why can't you ever say no? _My mind scolded me.

My fingers trembled as I tried to open the crisp, white envelope with the words "To Miss. L. Barlowe" written on the front.

_Who the HELL would be writing to me?_

The boys watched intently at the way I uneasily opened the letter.

I took a deep breath;

_Hey, Lydia._

_Do you know who this is?_

_It's Jack._

_Yes, you stupid little bitch._

I looked up, pleading with my eyes how much I didn't want to read this letter aloud.

X-Ray, for the forst time since I'd seen him, sat down next to me and put his hand on my shoulder.

"You guys, let's go play pool." He looked at me and smiled. "We'll see you later, okay, Mouse?"

-

_It's Jack. (Which you probably would have guessed.)_

_Wow, I can imagine the look on your face right now...right now...right fucking now._

_You are probably white in the face as you are reading this, and you probably have a million questions just zinging through your memory._

"_Why did you do this to me, Brother?"_

_Well…Good things come to those who wait. But in your case, it's not technically "Good."_

_You'll see._

_Well,_

_You haven't been to school in a while. BAD GIRLLLLLL.!_

_I hope you are getting tutoring at your…-EHEM-…Camp._

_Do you know something else? You are the best thing that's ever happened in my life. If it wasn't for you, my plan would have never worked._

_I would have never gotten a chance to get the money._

_There is a question in your mind, isn't there? **"What plan?"**_

_Well...Good things come to those who wait._

_Remember this, pumpkin-head…_

_THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE WHO ARE ALWAYS LESS LUCKY THAN YOU. ALWAYS_

_See you later……oh wait…no I won't……man, I'm laughing at my own joke…he he he…that was funny: "No, I wont…"_

_Jack (A.K.A. Jack-Jack)_

-

I looked up, my face unable to produce a single expression.

My mind had suddenly emptied itself of its valuable contents and my face became as expressionless as the dead.

No tears.

No, "How could he do this to me?" and watery tears.

No hurt yelling or screaming.

Although I was screaming so much in my mind anyone who could hear my thoughts would go deaf.

That's probably why I caught out of the corner of my eye, Armpit grimacing and covering his ears with his cumbersome hands. His eyes tightly closed. It was kind of funny to see one person hearing me scream, even if it wasn't myself.

I wore just a blank, motionless stare that made the other boys look like they had taken all my emotion and used it as theirs.

"Damn, girl, yo' brotha's one crazy motha fuzza."

I cleared my throat, trying to stop the crying from emerging out of my Poker stare.

_THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE WHO ARE ALWAYS LESS LUCKY THAN YOU. ALWAYS_

"Mouse---" Squid started.

"'Goodnight, guys."

I spun around swiftly and headed for my tent, with stinging vinegar in my eyes.

_Ouch, vinegar._

"Mouse…" Squid got up.

So did X-Ray. Which surprised me because X-Ray doesn't really want anything to do with me.

I turned to face them one more time,

"Goodnight," I choked, forcing another stupid, lopsided smile. "Don't let the bedbugs bite."

I turned and walked to my tent, and went directly to sleep.

_Stop worrying. At least you're not being raped in some basement._

"What if YOUR brother was using you for some stupid scandal that might leave you dead?"

_I'd go to Baskin Robbins, get drunk with icecream, and say "To Hell with it!"_

"Look around! Do you see a Baskin Robbins here? How long do you think the ice cream would last in this weather?"

_God, you're so grouchy._

"Well, by saying I'm grouchy, you're actually calling yourself grouchy."

…

_Banana._

"What?'

_I'm hungry. I feel like having a banana._

"You don't even like bananas!"

_How would you know?_

"Wow. We're really stupid, aren't we?"

_Shut the fuck up. You complain about not getting enough sleep and you're here talking to yourself…_

_---_

Well that was crappy.

Well, dear diary, that's all I have to say for today… Besides the fact that…

My life sucks ball(oon)s.


	21. Time Sucks

25

-

**This chapter is dedicated to Father Time.**

**Dear Father Time;  
You run pretty fast for an old guy.**

**Sincerely,**

**LeMoNsOuR **

CLANG! CLANG!

The tent flap opened so fast it gave everyone a start.

"WAKEY WAKEY! EGGS AND BAKEY!" Safari Man smiled and closed the tent flap shut just as fast.

There were annoyed groans and cussing audible from the boys' section of the tent.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, today I learned and confirmed that Caveman was teaching Zero how to read! How nice of him!

It all happened with the incident of the "Sunflower Seeds."

Magnet stole the sunflower seeds from Mr. Dogface's truck.

"I can't help it!"

He laughed.

To me, that seriously wasn't funny.

Am I laughing?

Well, Magnet threw the bag of seeds to Caveman and they spilled all over his hole! And Caveman got in trouble for it! The most unbelievable thing was that he didn't blame it on anyone but himself.

_Caveman's a loser._

"He's not a loser. He's a good friend…" I protested to myself, but I could not help a snorting chuckle.

_There are no such things as friends in this camp._

I smiled then. "Sure. Keep thinking that."

Well…while Caveman was gone in the Dreaded Warden's Cabin (Dun Dun Dunnnnn!), Zero timidly crawled out of his hole .

And he amazingly dug the rest of Caveman's hole FOR HIM! I decided not to ask him about it and waited 'til Caveman came.

"You still want those reading lessons?" Caveman inquired.

No one heard this all but me.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------MESS HALL----------

**---------SQUID'S P.O.V.----------**

"I still don't get it." I stated simply as I took a bite of the sloppy, extraterrestrial substance the cafeteria people call "food."

"O.k…I'll explain it to you again, because _girls_ don't usually understand things when they hear it the first time." X-Ray said, being sincere of what he said.

"Man, you're such a sexist." Armpit said. This made him sound a lot like Richard Simmons.

"O.k. , lil' girl: Time, no matter where you are, you can't escape it. Even when you're goin' through one of those days where you was a'readin comics all day and you can't escape **time**. But it's the most important thing you have in your life…"

I nodded in slow agreement.

X-Ray was always right. But Mouse just shook her head in a sad, knowing way.

"I don't believe in time anymore."

"Mouse, you're outta your head. Everyone needs TIME" I decided, nodding at X-Ray.

I really didn't understand the whole damn conversation, but I had to agree with everything X-Ray said.

X-Ray is never wrong.

My mentor is never wrong.

Never.

But she took a deep breath, which really did sound like a mouse and said;

"Time is not a priority anymore in this Hell hole. The days will go by so slow, your watches are going to deteriorate and you'll lose track of the day, and then your life. Why should I worry about time when I know I can't change shit?"

And she said this in such a non-human tone that we were all afraid.

We were all _very_ afraid.

The boys were silent.

X-Ray had a mixture of spite, jealousy and bewilderment in his so-cool face.

And X-Ray looked at me as if to say; "Traitor", as I _nodded_ mechanically to what Mouse had said.

I agreed with _her_ instead of X-Ray!

And this time _I _surprised everyone;

"I've been waiting to say that for a long time." I said with an unfamiliar hollow sound in my throat.

And I had. I wasn't just agreeing and nodding my head like some lovesick suckup.

But the surprising thing was that X-Ray was wrong.

My mentor was wrong.

She was right. For once she was right.

In Camp Greenlake, Time doesn't matter.

But I think Mouse was talking about her whole life, and not just about the one she has in this desert hellhole.

ZigZag and I exchanged glances and we I knew we were thinking about the same thing.

Lil' girl was going kazooki in the head. Her incredibly large head.

We had to get her out of this place before nothing of her was left except a psychotic foreign kid who talks to herself.

We have to get _us _out of this place.

Escape.

We will escape this place.

Even if it means we have to risk out rubber duckies to do it.

After all, Magnet had escaped.

And he came back.


	22. Climax Chapter: DUN DUN DUN!

26

**/A.N./ Most of this chapter is taken from the movie. If you haven't watched it and only read the book, it's no biggie.**

_**NOTE: This chapter is of no offense to gothics. Just to the wannabes who are like 9 years old who listen to Slipknot and they don't even know the meanings of most of the song words. (I LOVE ROCK, BY THE WAY, DON'T GET MAD:(**_

_**--------------------------------------**_

**----------AFTER DIGGING HOLES:CAFETERIA ROOM----------**

**-----LYDIA/ MOUSE'S P.O.V.-----**

Dogface.

Dogface was uglier today.

And "ugly" is a pretty nice compliment compared to what other people would call him when they could see his face today.

And there were two purple-black slashes under his left eye, which were uselessly bandaged by a tiny white…cloth thing. For a very long moment, Dogface's gaze drilled into Caveman's forehead, which was paler than usual, and drenched with sweat.

Squid. Yes, the very intelligent and considerate Squid, leaned over the counter at Mr. Dogface and squinted.

"Dude! What happened to your face!"

Dogface growled and grabbed Squid roughly by the collar.

"Somethin' the matter with my face? Huh?"

Dogface's breath was so disgusting Squid's nose twitched numerous times.

"No…n-no Mr. Sir…" (-twitch-twitch-)

He threw Squid across the room. (No, really, he did!)

"Anyone see somethin' wrong with my face? HUH?"

(SILENCE)

"I THINK I'M KINDA PERDY, DON'T YOU?"

"Yes, Mr. Sir."

"Yes, Sir."

"Sir! Yes, Sir!"

"Yes, Dogface."

He turned around, swishing his head this way and that.

"DOGFACE?"

After no reply, he went into the back of the mess hall to thrown things around.

"Did YOU do that?" I pointed to Dogface's hideous mask of bumpy Red, White and Blue.

He shook his head so vigorously I think he got brain damage.

"No!" He leaned over and hissed into my ear so no one could hear, "The Warden went crazy! She took this nail polish made of RATTLE SNAKE VENOM and swished it on his ugly face, making it even uglier as hell…"

He looked at me expectantly, thinking I would laugh at what he said, or even chuckle, but I didn't.

To tell you the truth, I couldn't smile if I tried my best to.

My façade of smiles couldn't hold up anymore like it could easily do everyday.

He scowled in pity.

_Wow. It looks like you're an even bigger loser than Caveman!_

"Please, leave me alone." I sighed.

Caveman looked hurt.

"Sorry." He said.

And he walked away.

"No! I wasn't talking about you, Caveman."

But he was gone.

"Dammit! Stop bothering me! Of all the 6.7 billion minds to have, I had to get you!"

_Can you even hear yourself? You're pathetic! You are, in fact SO pathetic that you are telling yourself to leave yourself alone._

I closed my eyes.

_Face it. Your life is nothing, now. YOU are nothing now. _

What was happening to me?

I felt the prickling sensation in my eyes again. And I winced.

I hadn't cried since I was seven years old and Jack had slapped me hard on the face and told me those words I still hear him shout.: _THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE WHO ARE ALWAYS LESS LUCKY THAN YOU. ALWAYS._

Then I came to camp Greenlake, and all I ever did was cry.

It wasn't really because I was I was a "so-tough" girl with gothic clothes and who cuts myself with a razor whist singing Linkin Park all day…

I had a tear duct problem.

SHUT UP, DON'T MAKE FUN OF ME!

God made everyone special. Even people with biological tear duct problems.

So I turned and ran.

I ran out of the Mess Hall with acid rain falling from under my eyes. It just hurt so much to cry, but I couldn't really control my actions anymore.

I didn't know where I was going, and I didn't care. Maybe I could run into a hole and rot. Yes! What a splendid idea!

And then, guess what?

Go on! Guess!

-

OOF!

I ran into another person.

I looked up to find the towering face of ZigZag.

"Mouse, what's wrong?"

I tried again to smile, but my lips just drooped down.

"Nothing. I… just really have to go to the bathroom. So if you don't mind…"

I tried to run, but he grabbed a hold of my cold hand.

"Mouse. You's probably thinkin' no one notices that something's happening to you. But we _all_ do…….Well except for X-Ray."

"ZigZag…nothing's wrong. Really. I am just suffering from a very full bladder."

I tried to smile again, but failed.

"And X-Ray, out of all of them, should notice_ Something…_that's why he's named X-Ray!"

"X-Ray is just the name 'Rex' in Pig-Latin." I said snobbily.

The Looser Me bent down to pretend to tie my shoes, when instead I wiped away the unwanted tears when ZigZag wasn't looking.

He bent over and grabbed a hold of my wrist, turning my palm up to show the wet tears that I had wiped off.

"What's this, Mouse? " He said. He knew what it was, but he was just trying to catch me off guard.

"Um…rain?"

ZigZag looked confused.

I pointed to the sky. "Oh look! Chickens have come to bombard us with rain clouds! RUN AWAY!"

He looked up.

My dear God. He actually looked up.

My God, some boys are unbelievably stupid.

I ran away leaving ZigZag looking up at the sky searching for signs of rain.

But he caught up with me and made a grab for my arm, but he ended up getting his hand tangled in my hair.

"O-OW!"

"Don't think you can run." He said, trying to have an intimidating, low voice whilst trying to get his hand out of my hair.

"I'm not trying to hide anything, you nosy asshole!" I wrenched my hand away from his.

He was taken aback.

"See that there?" He frowned in concern, "If you think there's nothing wrong, try to remember the last time you EVER NEEDED TO TIE YOUR SHOES WITHOUT ANY LACES ON THEM."

And he strode away like a cross dresser with a broken stiletto heel.

And I just stood there, alone. And I looked like a skinny bowling pin standing up in the middle of a camp from hell.

* * *

I was awakened **_not_** by Smokey the Bear's terrifying new catchphrase and his primitive kitchen span and wooden spoon. But I was scared awake by Squid's bloodcurdling screams;

"MY TOOTHPICK! WHERE IS IT! I NEED MY TOOTHPICK!"

My hair was probably sticking out in all places (I still couldn't untangle the knot ZigZag made) as I drowsily sat up to a fresh morning at 4:15 A.M.

"WHERE IS IT! I NEEEEED IT!"

Barefoot, I walked out of my tent and into the boys' section.

"What the hell are you whining about?" I demanded sleepily.

"MY…WOODEN STICK THINGY…IT'S GOOONE!"

Squid looked like he was about to burst into tears.

"Just go to Smokey the B----I mean Mom and get another toothpick."

"I NEEEEEED THAT ONE!" He was tossing pillows and blankets across the room. He threw shampoo, other people's personal items…And I think he threw a giant octopus….

"You mean you've had the same toothpick since you came here?"

He was still tossing things around.

"Well, they don't really SERVE us five-star toothpicks after we finish eating here, DO they, Mouse?"

_Man, that's just gross._

The room had become messy. I had overslept because the rest of the boys had already woken up and gone to eat breakfast. I mean…quotation; "Breakfast".

I guess Smokey the Bear decided not to wake us up this morning.

Where is he, anyways?

Just then I spotted something yellowish on the floor.

I went over to pick it up. It was a stuffed toy squid.

_I wasn't imagining things…he DID throw an octopus._

"What's this?" I waved the quite smelly toy in front of my face.

Squid stopped throwing things around and spun in my direction so fast, he went pale with dizziness.

He went even paler when he saw the toy in my hand.

"What's this?" I repeated.

"Um..,. I-I don't know. I-I thought i-it was yours…" he stuttered, not taking his eyes off the stuffed toy.

"It's not yours? I just saw you take it from under your bed and throw it when you were looking for your toothpick."

I began tossing it up in the air and watched it bounce off the tent ceiling.

"Mouse, don't---don't do that." He walked forward.

"Do what?" I asked innocently.

I tossed it up in the air again.

"Maybe you should put it back where you found it…One of the boys will probably wonder where they put it…"

"Are you sure it's not yours?" I asked sweetly.

I tossed it roughly up in the air again, and watched it bounce hard off the ceiling of the tent.

The toy squeaked.

"Maybe you should give it to _me_ now." He stretched out his hand, which was white and sweaty.

"I think I might just keep it. The boys won't miss this old thing." I smiled from ear to ear. "Besides, it's so cute!"

I walked away, throwing it up in the air once more.

"No! Please don't take Twippo!" He cried in a small, childish voice.

My right eye twitched.

"Twippo?"

"Um…yeah. That's mine," he confessed and he advanced towards me.

"Oh." I pretended to be surprised, and looked down at the…erm… toy.

I handed him the small, dirty rag he called 'Twippo.'

"Well, at least I know why you're called Squid."

He gently took the toy squid from me and pet its fluffy head.

"Don't worry, Twippo. She's our friend. She won't hurt you…Don't worry…?"

I shook my head in disbelief and walked away to my tent to change into my clothes.

_Twippo..._

* * *

----------DIGGING HOLES----------

**-----LYDIA'S P.O.V.-----**

The boys were whispering amongst themselves at Magnet's hole.

"Man, they don't do nothin' now but talk with each other." X-Ray whispered.

"Yeah, tawk with each other…" Squid agreed.

_Why does Squid always have to agree with X-Ray?_

"Yeah, I notice that too." Magnet sad. "After Zero digs Caveman's hole, they go into the tent and start reading or writing, or sumthin, I can't tell."

"Dawg, you think there's somethin' weird goin on between the two?" Armpit asked.

"You mean---"

"Do you think they're---"

"Gay?"

I barged into their little conversation.

"Caveman's teaching Zero how to read." I said loudly.

X-Ray looked dubiously at me.

"Pffft! Naw, man. Just look at 'em staring at each other like dat…they are in _lurve_ wit each otha."

"Caveman told me so." I looked down at them

"That's just what he _want_s you to think."

_Perverted freakooos._

Armpit snorted.

I glared at him;

"Well, if you weren't nosy enough to read my mind you wouldn't be snorting right about now."

"I can't help it." He shrugged.

"Whatever, asshole." I growled loudly.

_Uh oh…_

He straightened and looked at me in the eye.

"What's you say to me?"

"Guess!" I said in a chirpy, high pitched tone. I glared at him.

"I NEVER WANT TO HEAR YOU TALKING LIKE THAT AGAIN, MAGGIE! YOU HEAR?" He slapped me across the face with his baseball-mitt hands.

Everyone gasped.

The boys had stopped whispering amongst themselves and stared at Armpit.

He had _never_ yelled that loud before.

He had _never_ become so red it looked as if he would explode.

He had _never_ struck anyone with such anger.

He had _never_ looked at _anyone_ that way.

"You—you called me Maggie." I said quietly, with one hand on my cheek where he had hit me.

Armpit's eyes widened and the boys in the background looked nervous.

This wasn't Armpit.

This wasn't Theodore.

Armpit's chest was heaving as he started to hyperventilate. It looked especially weird since he was built like a balloon.

"M-Maggie…" His eyes glazed over and turned blank…like a Zombie.

I waved my hand swiftly in front of his face.

"Yo, Armpit…You okay?"

He looked straight ahead, oblivious of the world around him.

"Maggie…" He whispered again.

"Armpit?" ZigZag put a hand on his shoulder.

Armpit blinked multiple times and looked at me.

But his eyes were still blank and his face had a sad droopiness to it.

"Maggie…there you are." He walked towards me and smiled as if his face were melted wax. "We better get you home or mom's gonna be worried about you."

This scared and confused the hell out of Magnet especially. (Remember the pet mouse he had named Maggie?)

"Man, are you oké ?" Magnet squealed.

But Armpit was in his own world.

Something was wrong.

"Let's go, Maggie." He smiled. His smile still haunts me and I still remember it. It was lifeless, immobile to every extent. It was barely a smile but a robot reflex.

He put a giant hand on my shoulders and squeezed it with superhuman strength. My bones were going to shatter!

"O-ow. Armpit, let go of me! Please!"

"No. We gotsta get you back home. You might get hurt, Maggie."

X-Ray and ZigZag snuck up behind him and grabbed his arms.

"What-what are you doing, you guys?" armpit laughed psychotically.

He wasn't angry. He was too out of his mind to be angry.

"We're gonna take you back to camp, my man." X-Ray held on tighter to Armpit's arms.

"No…but wait…I have to take care of Maggie!" He said weakly in a tiny voice.

Magnet tugged at Armpit's left arm.

Suddenly Armpit exploded with anger.

"LET GO OF ME!" He knocked Magnet unconscious to the ground. Squid ran beside Magnet to see if he was okay.

X-Ray backed away, and Armpit shuffled towards me like a lost little child.

"Maggie…you know Bubba loves you very much and he doesn't want anything to happen to you…let's go home." He squeezed my already-blue wrist and dragged me towards the desert.

"ARMPIT LET GO! PLEASE LET GO!"

He dragged me further and further into the saharian emptiness of the desert.

Where was Mr. Sir?

The other boys didn't know what to do…they just walked behind him saying things like; "Armpit, what are you doing?"

I was so filled with unnerving terror that my knees almost gave way.

His clasp on my wrist tightened and my wrist began to turn blue.

"Armpit, I'm not Maggie! I'm Mouse! I'm…I'm…Lydia! Let goooooo!"

Then I realized he was going to keep dragging me into the desert until something was done…

"Squid! Shovel!" I cried.

At first confused, Squid realized what I was talking about. He threw his shovel in my direction…and…I CAUGHT IT! Mouse finally catches something!

Then I did it.

I hit Armpit hard on the head with the shovel.

Without so much as a single blink of an eye, Armpit helplessly let go of my wrist and slumped onto the floor.

He didn't move.

Magnet and Armpit were admitted into the "First-Aid" room.

Three hours later, while we were digging, Magnet and Armpit were returned to digging holes.

They avoided each other's eyes and quietly retrieved their shovels and began digging.

I caught Armpit's gaze and he just looked at me with guilty eyes.

_I'm sorry, Armpit. _I thought.

He nodded.

_Maggie was really special to you, wasn't she?_

From across the perimeter, he nodded at me once more.

This was actually easy, talking to someone without realty t_alking._

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------SIEVEN HOURS LATER------------

Smokey the Bear came over with his truck for lunchtime.

"Today; Baloney and cheese…Apples and graham crackers!" He said excitedly.

While we were in line, X-Ray grabbed a hold of my right arm and dragged me in front of Caveman.

_What is it with people grabbing my arm? _

"You're here now, Mouse." He flashed a geeky smile and went back to the front of the line.

_Oh! I feel so special! What, oh, what did I do to deserve such an honor?_

Armpit cleared his throat, which was his way of telling me to be careful what I say.

It was kind of nice now to have a conversation in front of everyone and no one could hear us.

I looked over to X-Ray, who was choosing over his abundant variety of lunch choices:

_Hmmm… the apple, or the graham cracker? Oh **so** many choices… _

_I think I'll have the one without the dead, rotting buzzard buried inside it, Mr. Safari Man._

Armpit chuckled again.

"What the hell you laughing at?" Squid administered .

"Yo' ugly face."

ZigZag and Squid were in a bad mood that day as they eyes spitefully at Caveman and Zero.

What were they up to?

"Theodore, Good day to you!" Smokey the Bear greeted.

"Allan…good after noon…"

"Goood afternoooon." Squid said in an overly friendly voice, hiding extra graham crackers behind his back.

"Hey, man," Squid said to ZigZag with a new toothpick in his mouth.

_Where the fuck did he get a new toothpick?_

But ZigZag brushed Squid off, only keeping his angry eyes on Caveman.

Caveman was humbly sitting down next to his hole, eating an apple.

"HEY!" Zigzag kicked Caveman on the leg .

"How 'bout I give you my cookie, and you let me dig your hole…" ZigZag had an obscure grin on his face.

Caveman ignored him and submissively kept his eyes on the ground.

"Go on!" ZigZag smiled. "Take it!" He waved the graham cracker in front of Caveman's face.

"Look!" Caveman blinked up at ZigZag, towering over him. "I get it! I'll dig my own hole from now on!"

ZigZag looked up at everyone and laughed. "He isn't gonna take it! You hear that?"

He shoved the cookie forcefully into Caveman's mouth.

"EAT THE COOKIE!"

Caveman dropped his apple and stood up.

They shoved each other immaturely and I did nothing but roll my eyes.

"What's going on here?" Pendanski jumped in.

"Nothin' Mom," Squid laughed, "We was just foolin' around."

Pendanski shook his head. "No I saw what was going on! Go on, Stanley…teach him a lesson." He wore his plastic smile in his face. "Hit him back."

"Yeah, teach me a lesson." ZigZag scoffed, and shoved him once more.

Caveman slapped him lightly on the face as the boys in the background were cheering them on.

This got ZigZag M.A.D. He tackled poor old Caveman and began to slug him.

I stood up.

"That's enough!" Pendanski and I shouted in unison.

They were still fighting.

I marched swiftly towards them to stop the fighting, but Zero beat me to it.

He jumped on ZigZag and tackled him to the ground, choking him until ZigZag began to cough and gurgle.

Armpit tried to pull Zero off but it was useless.

BANG!

Pendanski fired his gun. "I said that's enough! Get back to your hole"

Zero stood up and ZigZag dusted himself off, glaring at him.

"Man, that dude's crazy!" Squid told ZigZag.

_You're ALL fucking crazy. _I sighed and went back to finish me hole.

Children weren't meant to dig holes every single day.

We have to escape.

I don't know why, but I looked at ZigZag then. He realized someone was gazing at his direction and met my eyes.

_Escape._

We both knew then what we had to do.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

**Leencz: I hope this chapter answered your question. Now I've got a question for you: What country do you live in? I shall make a VERY rough guess in saying…your house. HA! I'm damn psychic.**

**ArwenEvenstar83: Her brother is that way for a reason. Insanity runs deep in Mouse's family. Remember Kate Barlow? What happened to her? Mouse is also beginning to loose it. And I guess her brother was always that way. BUT something will come up near the end that will make everything in this senseless story make sense. I'll explain it to u all in the next chapter.**

**(Sorry. I like writing stuff in French. ****animelover: whoah. I practically memorized your penname. I don't have to check to see if it's right anymore. And for real, I know people who are like Mouse's brother, Jack. Most of these people are based on characters I know.**

"**Sup": Hey, I like "Inspection At GCL"! It's not bad. "Psychotic"…-tee hee-…I AM psychotic, aren't I? My other Fanfic is also about a psychological thriller. (not a 'thriller', but it's a 'mind' story… :( **

**Nosilla: In Arabic class (I have to take Arabic class), my coughfriendcough Waleed and I took random names and said them backwards. I tried the name 'Allison' and it flipped around to Nosilla. Very clever. Mine ends up dumb: ' RuosnomeL". (He he: "Damn technicalities")**


	23. Dear JackJack

**WEEE! THE ROOM IS SPIIIIIININGGGG!**

**I wrote this after visiting Annabelle at the cemetery, so I'm probably going to add some "I hate myself" or other frowny things without noticing in this chapter.**

**But please read, anyway. It does not contain any crack snorting or wrist cutting.**

**LOOK! A MANGO!**

**(-sigh-)**

**I want to hug a mango.**

_**-LeMoNsOuR**_

_**--------------------------**_

-----WARDEN'S INTERROGATION-----

"Basically, Zero tried to KILL Ricky!" Pendanski was not smiling now.

"Basically?" The warden looked skeptical.

"Well... I guess I kinds thought it was unfair that Zero's been diggin' Caveman's hole--"

"Excuse me? Caveman's been digging a hole just like every one else!" The Warden looked calm, but her voice sounded angry.

Squid decided to take control:

"Ma'am." He professionally removed the toothpick from his mouth, "Zero's been digging a part of Caveman's hole every day."

Dogface's purple and blue face twitched.

"You're not diggin' holes no more, Caveman? Huh?"

"I-I'm teaching him how to read."

"Huh?"

"H-h-he's a smart k-kid." Caveman began to stutter again.

"SMART?" Pendanski almost exploded with sarcastic shock.

"Hey, Zero! What does H-A-T spell?"

Zero looked like he knew the answer…but I remembered that he hadn't learned the letter "H" yet.

"C-ch-h- CHAT." Zero replied.

Pendanski rolled his beady eyes. "Damn genius he is! He's so stupid, he DOESN'T KNOW HE'S STUPID!"

"That's it." The Warden rubbed her forehead. "From now on…I don't want ANYONE diggin' anyone else's holes."

_That sounds wrong._

"And no more reading lessons…" The warden narrowed her eyes.

"B-b-but---"

"We know you mean well, Stanley." Said the stubby Smokey the Bear, " But…the mental stress just causes his brain too much of a….challenge. THAT'S what made his blood boil, not the hot sun!" He smiled with achievement.

_You disturb me._

"I'm not digging any more holes." Zero said with silent anger.

"Good. I mean," Pendanski went on. "You might as well teach this damn shovel to read! IT'S AAAALL YOU'LL EEEVEEER BE GOOD FORRRR! HEY ZERO…WHAT DOES D-I-G. SPELL?"

Zero just stood there for a moment. Poor Zero! I felt like taking a cream pie and shoving it into Dr. Pendanski's repulsive face. But I was frozen is suspense.

Then.

WHAP!

Zero smashed the shovel into Pendanski's empty skull and it made a hollow CLONK.

"Dig!"

Then Zero ran as fast as he could towards the desert.

Dogface ran after him, but his penguin legs just couldn't handle the physical strain of _running._

"GO ZERO! GOOOOOOO!" Caveman shouted.

I turned to him and slapped him in the face.

""WHAT IN GOD'S NAME ARE YOU THINKING, MAN?WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO HIM ONCE HE _ESCAPES, _STUPID!"

Caveman's face went blank.

"Oh…I didn't think of that."

The Warden turned to us and looked at us accusingly.

"I still expect…eight holes."

--------------------------------------------

After that, Caveman was not the same anymore.

He stopped telling corny jokes; he stopped eating like a damn pig……. (He's7 kilos heavier than Armpit)

…He stopped being… Caveman.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That day in the WRECK room, Magnet came up behind me.

"Hey, hey!" He laughed maniacally, doing a dance that looked like a mixture of Telitubbie Bellydancing.

"May I help you?" I asked politely. "Are you looking for the Midol? Or did you run out of that?"

His smile burned out.

"No, chica. I still have something to give you."

"What?"

"Guess."

"A flavored condom?"

"Eh…no."

"What?"

"After lights out…. I can't give it to you here." He looked around suspiciously.

Then he whispered to my ear so that no one could comprehend what he was saying;

"The Warden has cameras everywhere! And those listening thingies! Be careful, lil' girl."

I bent over secretively and whispered in my best James Bond tone ; "Yes, agent 007, I'll meet you in the top-secret-headquarters-that-no-one-knows-about soon enough."

Magnet looked annoyed and walked away angrily, muttering something in that high-pitched voice of his.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Smokey the Bear seemed to have waited at the front of the tent for so long.

He waited and waited until all of the boys have gone, leaving me alone.

The tent flap opened so fast it made me fall off the cot.

He jumped in with a robotic smile and a clipboard.

To imagine his smile, my friends, is highly impossible. But to give you a slight visual picture, just imagine a constipated chimpanzee that lost the banana lottery.

And that's what it looks like.

"HI, LIL' GIRL!" He exclaimed like a host of a children's TV show.

"HI, BARNEY!" I shouted back, spreading my arms wide open as if ready to give him a great big bear hug.

Smokey looked frightened and backed away.

"Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions? It's your monthly interrogation." He said chirpily.

"YAAAAAY! QUESTIONS!" I said enthusiastically, and did the hokey Pokey dance (if you remember from kindergarten, the hokey Pokey takes quite a long time to finish)

He sat down on the cot across from me.

"First: Do you think you get enough privacy?"

My mood changed.

"No."

"Why do you think this?"

"Why don't you fucking tell me why I 'think this'? Wasn't it _you_ who had to takedown my bra from the flag pole? Isn't it _you _who has to stand in front of my shower stall _every_ time I take a shower so no one would steal my clothes?"

He di nothing but write notes on that goddamned pad.

"What else would you like to change?"

"Well, Smokey…I would like to change EVERYTHING if you don't mind! But the fact that nothing I say makes sense, I think we might as well ignore this question, don't you think?" I clasped my hands together in front of my chest like those Japanese anime girls.

(-sigh…Japanese anime…:-) -)

"Did any of the boys try to use violence or take anadvantage of you?" he asked casually.

"What do you mean?"

"As in sexual abuse or violence in any way."

"Well, not really, Barney. I'm kind of too small in the "boobies" department and pretty ugly for any guy to even THINK about me naked…"

Pendanski frowned. It was not the answer he expected.

_Fine. _

"But one guy tried to kill me and use my eyes as olives for his martini." (-still smiling-)

Dr. Pendanski clapped his hands.

"And last of all: When was the last time you had your monthly----"

"That's none of your business, you damn faggot."

"That's very good, Carol! You're answering these questions very well! Thanks for cooperating!"

He takes out a golden star and sticks it on my shirt.

"I'm not Carol" I said dully.

"We've been monitoring you to see if any of the boys have been doing anything inappropriate. Sometimes we loose track of where you are, though."

"That's very fascinating. Now get out of my tent or I'll show the Warden all of those women's clothing you have hidden in your closet."

Smokey the Bear's face darkened.

"YOU WOULDN'T!"

_Oh my God. No way…_

"No. I was …just kidding…Dr. Pendanski."

He smiled again immediately.

"OH!" He laughed and wiped the side of his face. "YES! Yes! I knew you were kidding! So was I! I'm such a joker, you know!"

He punched my arm 'playfully'.

I began to get mental images of hitting the Barney Impersonator again and again with a crow bar decorated with flowers and hearts.

"This is scaring me more and more. Please get out."

"Lil' girl…" He began.

Suddenly every part, every muscle, every nerve of my body abruptly…froze. My eyes narrowed.

"What?" I said, which sounded much like the Hulk.

"I was just going to say, Lil' girl, that-----"

I marched towards him as intimidatingly as I could.

"I'M NOT……LIL' GIRL!"

He backed away.

"AND I'M NOT… DUUUUUUDE!"

He meagerly put his arms in front of his face like a frightened gnome.

"I'm not MOUSE, I'M NOT…_LYDIA_ I'M NOT JULIA, OR CAROL, OR LUDO, OR EVEN KING AZERBAJAN!"

My nose was 4 inches away from the sun-screened potato in the middle of his face.

"I'm…I'm…I'm just….I'm"

It suddenly came to me that I didn't know what I was.

_You're a nobody._

"I'm a…nobody…"

I backed away one step and drooped my head.

Pendanski decided this was the best time to act like Dr. Phil.

"Oh, Jessica! You're not a nobody! You're your own, _special_ person. Let's take this moment to list things we like about ourselves!"

His smile was so psychotically happy that I wish I had one of those electrical shocker things.

"I'M NOT JESSICA!"

I stormed away.

-----------------------------------

--------LETTERS----------

There was a new rule in Camp Greenlake.

Actually the rule only applied to D-Tent because "Dr. Phil" over there made it up.

"From now on," Pendanski announced, "You will all have to reply to all the letters you get from your families. All of them."

X-Ray complained the loudest about this.

Dr. Pendanski passed out pieces of papers and pens that were so scratchy they almost didn't work.

_Dear (sister),_

_Thankfully, they haven't gotten to me yet, Those malevolent penguins will never see the last of me!_

_I will speak in code, for my safety and yours. I hope you still remember it:_

"_The mouse trap is still full of buttons. Don't let the bunnies kill your telephone. It will explode"_

_Your loving brother_

_(Ricky)_

_-------_

_Dear Grandma_

_Thank you for the letter._

_Letters are good._

_Um…I am having a wonderful time in my new campy place._

_Don't send me cookies._

_Your grandson,_

_Rex_

_-----_

"Man, you hardly wrote shit in your letter! Your Grandma will disown your ass." Armpit scoffed.

"I couldn't write anything…let's see YOU write a letter…"

---

_Dear mother,_

_I am having a wonderful time in this Camp._

_We go swimming every day and I feel as if I was rich as a king._

_Say hi to everyone there._

_Theo-----Armpit._

"Man, that's even more boring than MY letter!" X-Ray hit him upside the head.

---

_Dear Mom;_

_I'm having a wonderful time at camp! The food's great…not as good as yours, but I like it. We've been out in the lake all day. Once I pass the swimming test, I get to learn how to water ski! _

_I MADE LOTS OF FRIENDS. And…the water is cool and refreshing. You'd like my counselor…he's a doctor. And I'm really enjoying the wildlife. The boys aren't bad kids. To me they were just at the wrong place at the wrong time._

_Well…that's it for now, mom. Say "hi" to Dad and Grandpa for me._

_Love, your son,_

_Stanley._

_----_

Whilst everyone was writing happily to their "loved ones", I stared blankly at the piece of paper before me.

I chewed on the tip of the pencil.

For one thing, I didn't know what to write. Another thing was that there was no address to send this letter to.

But there was an anger in me. And anger that I couldn't classify as a feeling because it overpowered my mind so strongly, I felt as if I was nothing BUT anger.

Anger.

How strong can it be?

_Dear Jack-Jack;_

_You will never get this letter, but I hope you will one day see me not as someone you can use for your "plan", but as your family._

_You don't know this, Jack-Jack but I still wish you were here. You the only thing I have close enough as a family and even if you threw me away like fucking garbage, I still think of you every day and I always ask myself why you did this to me._

_What "plan" are you talking about? Will things really come about in the end?_

_The heat in this shithole is overpowering and my anger for your pitiful existence is even stronger. I don't know whether to love you as a brother, or hate you as a tormentor._

_But I guess…I still love you. I don't care if you burn this letter or stick it up your ass. I just want to tell you that no matter how much you torture me,_

_How many times you stab my back._

_How many times you slap my face._

_How many times you tell me to stop crying because I don't matter._

_I still love you._

_And I always will._

_Just…_

_Please take me away from here. Please._

_Please be there when I get out of here. We can go to Baskin Robbins and eat as much ice-cream as we could.._

_We could go to Six Flags, and go to all the rides, just like a real family… Anything._

_Just get me out of here._

_Your sister,_

_The Nobody._

Just as I was about to give Pendanski the letter, I realized...

No one knows where my brother is. This letter will be lost in the wind.

And I guess it's better that way.

I licked the tip of the envelope, and creased the cover.

I slowly folded the crisp, white paper that felt so smooth in my gloved hands.

I slid it softly under my pillow.

I slowly closed my brittle, tired eyelids and drifted off into another unreal world where everything was made of giant marshmallows.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**----------LIGHTS OUT----------**

"Mousey!"

Someone was shaking me awake.

"Chica! Wake up!"

"Why don't you bother your pregnant goldfish!" I grabbed the pillow and covered my head with it.

"Um…I don't have a…pregnant gold…fish."

Magnet, being the only one able to tolerate my sudden insanity went on with what he was saying:

"Mouse, I have a present for you!"

I shot up.

"Present?" I asked happily.

"Yes. Remember when I went to God's thumb?"

"No---I mean yes."

"Well, I was almost all the way to the top of the cliff when I slipped on the rocks. I NEVER GOT COMPLETELY TO THE TOP OF GOD'S THUMB.."

"So? It's not MY fault you don't have any athletic abilities."

"That's not the point."

"What does this have to do with anything?"

" I was falling, but something that looked like a branch was sticking out of the cliff. I grabbed it to keep me from falling before I hit the ground."

"Your English is getting better, Magnet."

"That is not the point." he said again.

" The thing…that was sticking out of the cliff…is _this_."

He held out his dark hand to reveal a dark, rusty brown tube about the size of an Evian bottle. It was made of metal.

"What's that?" I wiped the sleep out of my eyes.

"Open it." He urged with an excited smile.

I took the large tube and popped open the top. Dust escaped from the long unopened mystery I had held in my hands.

I took out what seemed to be an old piece of parchment.

I unfolded the parchment and my face felt drained of all its color.

"M-magnet. It's…it's a…"

"It's a map." He finished for me.

I began to breathe very hard and I couldn't stop my eyes from blinking.

"Mouse, do you have something in your eye?"

"IT'S A MAP!"

"Yes, I said that."

I began to get very dramatic. And it was frightening to watch I could see Magnet backing away in fear.

"IT'S A MAP! IT'S A MAP! IT'S A MAP! IT'S A MAP!"

I got off of the cot and began twirling around, tripping over a bra and falling on my face.

I got back up happily as if nothing had happened and continued twirling around.

"IT'S A MAP! IT'S A MAP! IT'S A MAP! IT'S A MAP!"

Magnet got up and snatched the map away from my hand.

"I think I will take this back now, you scary, scary girl."

But I was still hyper.

I leaped up and gave Magnet a suffocating hug.

"IT'S A MAP! IT'S A MAP! IT'S A MAP! IT'S A MAP!"

"I thought you didn't like people touching you, Mouse."

"IT'S A MAP! IT'S A-----"

I realized I had given a stinky, juvenile delinquent who hasn't taken a decent bath in months…a (-shudder-) hug.

Oh well.

I'm going fucking crazy anyways. I wouldn't be surprised if I woke up and decided to hug Mr. Sir.

Actually, no. I would.

"I can't believe it! HOORAH FOR ME! "

I hugged him again.

"Chica, you are going to choke me."

"Hey, look. The map has the initials K.B. written on the bottom. Kate Barlowe" I pointed out.

"Oh Yes! I am I seeing that is!" He whispered.

"Hey, what happened to your perfect English?"

"It went away."

"Oh."

"You're weird."

"I am is knowing for that."

Then he pointed to the metal tube that the map came from.

"Look! Something is carved on the metal thing!"

I picked up the small, metallic object and sure enough there were two words carved beautifully onto the metal.

My heart began beating hard at my ribcage as I read the carving.

"What the----"

"Jésuscristo…" Magnet squeaked.

For there, engraved onto the dirty, black map container were the words;

_For Maggie_

_--------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

**I ****Leencz: I made Squid X-Ray's bitch in my story, well not really. But he's just someone who can't make any decisions for himself. Come on! He has a 14-year old toy Squid named Twippo for Gods sakes! (Oh, and please make another Mary-Sue one. It was too funny to be wasted.**

**ArwenEvenstar83: Wow. You seem to understand insanity. I worship you. (-bows-) The end of the story is coming soon. It's kind of sad, and I'm glad that it's one of your favorite chapters because it has a lot of things to do with the ending.**

**Fk306 animelover: Hey, you haven't updated your story in a while. It's just really good and I really want to read the rest. It's funny, but also good in other ways. Thanks for reviewing. :)**

**Lilmizzrebel31: Oh! Please stay for the next few chapters because you sort of gave me an idea for how (or if) they will escape! Your Peter Pan Story is getting better and better!**

**Avoir, mes amis!**


	24. Memories Make You Vomit

30

**-----ZIGZAG'S P.O.V.-----**

_"Ricky, you can never really be anything when you grow up. You're just like me, useless to the world. And you're shivering, look at you..."_

_Ricky's mother took off her jacket and placed it gently upon his shoulders._

_"Mommy, I'm not cold."_

_She stood in front of him, scanning his face as if she were trying to imprint it permanently onto her memory._

_"You may still have a chance, baby. But as for me..."_

_She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, covering the exploding agony that was cleary visable through them._

_"Why don't you go to Grandpa's house, now. I have lots of work to do."_

_"Mommy..."_

_"Go now!"_

_He turned and walked out of the door as if someone had lit a fire to his rear end._

_The moment he turned around, there was a loud BANG._

_And his mother was dead._

_So was the look of agony in her statue-like open eyes that were only now covered with the look of death. The gun was still in her hand._

_"Mommy..."_

-

I had woken up from another nightmare.

I just don't remember what it was about. Maybe it was the evil colony of outerspace pinguins...

Damn those outerspace penguins…

WHY CAN'T THEY JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!

It was after lights out and everyone was sleeping.

My clothes were drenched in sweat and my vision became clouded with flashes of blinding light.

This happens almost every night.

Then that one night after I had been attacked by…_them, _the evil voices, I had the worst nightmare.

I woke up and to tell you the truth, I began crying..

Damn, I'm so pathetic…

-

Well, just two years ago, my mom had to be sent to the "cuckoo house" because she had one of those psychotic attacks. She almost killed Frances, my youngest sister because she was crying too much.

She's dead now.

My mother.

I wasn't even there for her funeral.

I was here, in Camp Greenlake, digging these shitty holes.

Then that day when Mouse came.

She looked exactly like my freako imaginary friend. (Uh... not like I really have one now).It was like seeing my imaginary concoctions become a real person!

Well, I don't even know why I'm writing this. I didn't know who to tell.

Anyways. Yeah, she was real special, that Maggie.

And even now, I'm sure she's real, and not just a figment of my imagination.

Maybe she's one of those magical outerspace chickens in disguise as a person that no one else can see.

Maybe Maggie is actually _pretending_ to be my friend but she was really sucking out the important memories out of my brain so I don't tell the world about her terrible, evil secret.

Maybe I should shut up now.

I don't know how I got the name, Maggie. I just did. It was like she told me her name…without really…_telling _me.

_-_

_9 YEARS AGO:_

**The house was crowded by noises and voices of his 7 sisters.**

**And his mother was in her room talking to herself again.**

**6 year-old Ricky was bored.**

**He turned on the T.V.. Bambi was on.**

**He was watching the part where Bambi's mother was being killed. The shot rang out and blurred the television speakers…The faun searched everywhere, but his mother was gone…**

**It made him cry.**

**He wiped his babyish tears with a pudgy hand.**

**He walked to his mother's room and slowly opened her door.**

"**Mommy?"**

**He was worried about her. He didn't want his mother to get shot by an evil hunter in the deer meadow! He had to see if she was okay.**

"**Mommy?'**

**He slowly walked towards his mother's bedroom door and creaked the door open with his tiny hands.**

**His motherwas there, sitting in front of her vanity mirror, holding the brush threateningly in front of her face.**

**It was like the brush was going to attack her, or something.**

"**Brush your hair, Melinda." she ordered herself.**

"**No. I don't want to brush my hair. You can't make me!"**

"**A tree died for you just so it could become a brush."**

"**No!"**

"**You're hurting its feelings."**

"**What if its infested by llama-eating termites?"**

"**Are you a llama, Melinda?"**

"**N-no."**

"**Then brush the hair!"**

**Her eyes were angry and wild.**

"**No! I don't WANT to brush the hair! It will fall out and make me bald. And then Jason would not want to marry me anymore!"**

**Jason was Ricky's father. He died 4 years ago.**

"**Melinda! Brush your hair! Or it will be disheveled and he won't WANT to marry you because your hair is so ugly!"**

"**You're right…" She confessed to her 'other self.'**

And so you see?

Mouse reminded me so much of my mother and of... Maggie, the girl that didn't exist.

I've seen Mouse talk to herself once in a while. She looked tormented by her own thoughts and she would cover her ears sometimes.

She looked so like my mother when she did that I felt I was going back in time to when I saw my mother in that room, fighting with her brush.

Brushes have freaking scared me ever since then. So I kind of... DON'T brush my hair. That's why it sticks up in all directions. Brushes are evil, I tell you! Pure evil!

My mother would still be alive if it weren't for those damn brushes.

-

"**Mommy? Why are you talking to your brush?"**

**Melinda, his mother,turned slowly to him and smiled.**

"**Oh, Ricky! There you are…" she said tiredly.**

"**Mommy, I want you to take me the candy store to buy jaw breaker." He tried to make an excuse for trespassing into her room.**

"**No, baby. I have to stay here and wait for Jason. I also have to take care of the kids." She smiled.**

"**Mommy. Daddy's dead. I already know what 'dead' means. Maggie told me."**

_-_

I never watched the end of Bambi.

Maybe if I wished hard enough, the television in the Wreck Room would come to life, and Bambi would flicker upon the television screen.

Bambi's mother would actually turn out to be alive, and they would live happily ever after.

And you want to know something? I **know** the T.V. is broken.

I know it will never work.

I'm not THAT stupid….okay, never mind.

But it is the only place I can run away from Camp Greenlake without anyone noticing. I can watch any show I want there.

Even the show where a boy named Ricky finds out that his mother isn't actually dead but there, waiting for him.

**-**

**Suddenly Melinda's face became cold as marble.**

"**WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, YOU DISGUSTING PIG?"**

"**Mommy, I ---"**

**She threw her brush at him and it clonked off his head.**

"**GET OUT! GET OUT! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!"**

**Ricky ran out as fast as he could and his under the bushes in the back yard.**

**And he cried.**

**He cried and cried like there was no stopping his waterfall of deep and utter torture that no child should experience.**

**Suddenly there was a rustling in the bushes.**

**Ricky looked up.**

"**Oh, it's only you, Maggie."**

**Maggie smiled.**

"**Ricky, your mom had a bad day, is all." Maggie said softly.**

**Ricky was still crying.**

"**How's about we go and get that candy you wanted?" she asked in her Southern tone.**

**-**

Yep. Maggie and Mouse.

I don't think Mouse deserved to be here. She doesn't do drugs! She can't! She doesn't even eat the gloop we get for lunch! She eats dirt, or something…

She's here, stuck in a minimum security prison camp with boys that are willing to rape an ugly hunchback girl if they could. And Mouse kind of walks around like she has a hunch on her back...

I think the Warden installed cameras everywhere, so she could probably see if the boys have tried anything on her or something. After all, Camp Greenlake is supposed to be extended into a co-ed Camp where girls will have to dig holes every day.

Holes. Why holes, anyway?

I bet you this whole plan wouldn't work, and there will be no more girls to ever set foot on Greenlake.

And Mouse will soon be gone, just like Maggie, just like my mother.

Hey, did you notice they all begin with the letter "M"?

Whoa. That's deep, man.

-

"**No! She's real! Maggie's real!" Ricky shouted.**

"**Your friend needs to go now. She's not real, okay?"**

"**NO! I'M NOT LEAVING THIS HOUSE! MAGGIE SAID IF I LEAVE THE HOUSE, SHE'LL DISAPPEAR AND I'LL NEVER SEE HER AGAIN!"**

"**Well, that's the idea, baby. My psychologist says its best we move away from this house, and away from the bad memories."**

**Melinda picked up her suitcases and motioned for Ricky to come with her.**

"**Let's go, baby." She looked up at the house one more time and whistled through her fingers.**

"**GIRLS! WE'RE GOING NOW!"**

**Seven little girls scrambled out from nowhere, each carrying one or two bags or suitcases.**

"**I'M NOT GOING, MOMMY! YOU CAN GO! I'M STAYING HERE WITH MAGGIE!"**

**A rough man jumped out of a large moving van and picked Ricky up.**

"**Do you want me to take care of this one, ma'am?"**

"**Just throw him in the truck. It's punishment." said Melinda coldly.**

**Ricky looked at his mother with shock and hurt.**

"**NOOOO!" He pounded his fists on the man's back. "MAGGIE! HELP ME!"**

**But Maggie was gone. She never answered him.**

**You could say her job was done…Ricky had to take care of HIMSELF now.**

**-**

**-----------------------------**

**----------NARRARATOR----------**

The day was so hot, you could _see_ the air. You could see the thick smog of evaporate humidity sticking to your eyes.

Squid stopped digging for a moment and wiped sweat from his brow.

It was counseling day. Counseling day always brought memories.

He could remember the shouting, the glass breaking.

He could remember his mother and father throwing things at each other.

He could remember the coffee maker that his mother threw at the wall and the sickening, loud smash that followed.

"**Vince, you never understand anything!"**

**She hid behind a sofa and threw a vase at her husband, who in turn, was hiding behind an overturned coffee table.**

**Yes. This was Squid's family. It was probably the strangest of all families in D-Tent.**

**Vincent spotted his wife's hair curler on the floor and heaved it at her.**

**The handle broke off as it bounced off against the wall.**

"**MY HAIR CURLER! MY BEAUTIFUL, AUTOMATIC, MACHANIC MARTHA STEWART HAIRCURLER! YOU'RE GONNA PAY!"**

**She ran to the cupboard and took her husbands prize 1805 English whiskey and heaved it at the other wall. It smashed and splattered a foul-smelling reddish liquid all over the wall.**

**Vince's head popped out from behind the overturned table.**

**Where was 4 year-old Squid during all of this?**

**He was hiding in the closet.**

**Unlike Magnet, he LIKED being in the closet. It was his only place of sanctuary.**

It had been a whole day since Zero had run away.

Caveman took this especially hard. He hadn't looked at anyone in the face since that day.

There was also supposed to be a new kid coming from just a few miles away.

He was arrested for Joyriding.

-

"**Asshole!"**

"**Bitch!"**

"**Bad mother!"**

"**Niglective Father!"**

**"...Ugly toes!"**

**"(gasp!) Take that back!"**

**Immature, childish insults and household items were being tossed back and forth throughout the room.**

**Meanwhile, Squid crouched deep in his closet and hugged his two toys dearly.**

**They were both toy squid. One was named Twippo, and the other one, Squid found in his back yard.**

**It suddenly fell from the sky. **

**He called it Maggie.**

"**Shhhh!" He whispered to the two toys. "It's okay…mommy and daddy will become friends again. They always do."**

**He curled himself into a ball, and sang as loudly as he could to drown the noises of his feuding parents.**

"**If only, if only, the woodpecker sighs. The bark on the tree was as soft as the skies…"**

**But that night would be the last night Alan would ever see his father. And it would also be the last time he would see his mother sober.**

_-_

"So what you in here for, Twitch?" X-Ray asked the new boy of D-Tent.

He had pale skin and light hair. Everything from his nose, to his fingers, twitched uncontrollably.

"Joyridin'" answered Twitch in his high-pitched voice.

It turned out Brian, or 'Twitch', had been sent to this abominable dry piece of shit they called the Happy Snappy Camp Greenlake because he hotwired a mustang convertible and went a-ridin' down the highway.

"So Twitch," X-Ray said, saying the name again, "Why you jumpin around like that? You gots epilepsy or somethin'?"

Twitch shrugged, actually he shrugged five or six times in a row.

"My doctor says its cawled' uh…obsessive something order."

"Obsessive Compulsive Disorder." corrected Mouse with honey dripping down her chin from the tortilla she ate.

"Man, mouse. You should be a psycolist or sumthin'! " Squid said stupidly.

"It's _psychologist_. And FUCK NO! I ain't becoming no Quack, ew."

Twitch laughed, or rather had a snoring fit. He twitched so much while laughing that he sort of looked like popcorn being popped.

"Haa hee ho! (-snort-) Ho ho ho! Ha HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (-snort-)"

Everyone stared blankly at Twitch as he bent over his food and took a big, jolly bite out of the dripping Tortilla.

-

"**Please, baby. You know I didn't mean what I said. Let's give us one more chance."**

**Vince, Squid's father looked up from his suitcase, which was almost fully packed.**

"**Gina. This is your house. You've always complained about how you wanted me out of it---"**

"**You know I didn't mean that!"**

"**I DON'T CARE ANYMORE!" Vince spat.**

"**Baby, what about your son!" The 'son' excuse usually worked.**

"**You were always the better parent." Vince said coldly.**

**Gina went on.**

"**B-but where will you go?"**

**Absentminded and drunk, Vince kept on packing his clothes carelessly.**

"**I might go find an apartment and live with Allison, and maybe---"**

"**WHO THE HELL IS ALLISON?"**

**This caught Vince by surprise.**

"**A-A-Allison. You know? My _sister_, Allison."**

"**You never told me you had a sister." Gina said, eyeing him suspiciously.**

**Vince stuttered.**

"**Oh my God…I know why you're leaving me!" she screamed.**

"**Honey, no you don't." Vince said, reaching for his wife's shoulder.**

**She pushed itaway.**

"**You've been seeing someone behind my back, haven't you?"**

**-**

The cue ball bounced against the sides of the pool table and knocked three solids into a pocket.

(Yes, in pool that is very common for professional players)

Squid stood up and triumphantly chewed on his toothpick.

"Man, how did you do that?" Magnet asked.

"Everybody has a talent. Mine just happens to be playing pool."

"How did you learn to play?"

Squid's eyes looked distant. It was probably the humisity making his eyes look like that.  
"My mother played pool a lot. She would sometimes use it to get money for us after my dad left. She didn't want to get a job."

-

**It had been a year and six months since his father had left.**

**Little Alan walked timidly into the livingroom, now messy and full of junk, with Twippo and Maggie in his arms.**

**He shuffled towards the couch as quietly as he could.**

**His mother was hunched up on a couch smoking a cigarette. She looked so haggard and disheveled, it was hard to tell if she was actually awake mother.**

"**Did you get it?" She asked without looking at him.**

"**Y-yes mommy."**

**His mother took a long drag of her cigarette and stuck out her arm.**

"**Give it here."**

**Alan went beside his mother and handed her a packet with a white substance in it. She grasped it and held the packet in front of her blood-shot eyes.**

"**This isn't enough."**

"**I-I know, mommy. But Snookie said that's all he is giving you for 13 dollars."**

"**Well, mommy can't be happy unless she gets a full ounce of cocaine, baby." she said softly.**

"**Sorry mommy."**

**Her mother shook her head.**

"**That's not enough. Sorry isn't enough to make mommy happy, you know that."**

"**But---"**

"**We. Have. No. More. Money. Do you understand that? Tell Snookie he should go easy on his number one customer."**

"**I don't like Snookie. I don't want to go there again."**

"**Baby. Snookie is a drug dealer. Name me one person you know who likes drug dealers."**

"**You do, Mommy."**

**His mother's blood-shot eyes flared. "What's that supposed to mean, you little shit?"**

"**I saw you kissing him and taking off his clothes in your room, momma. You said that when two people kiss, it means they like each other." **

**She stood up and slapped the boy across the face.**

"**WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, BOY? YOU DON'T SNIFF AROUND IN PEOPLE'S ROOMS!"**

**Alan backed away and hugged his two toys tightly.**

"**It's okay." He whispered to one of them.**

**His mother bent over and snatched one of the toys away.**

"**What the hell do you think you're doing? Talking to a shit-rag like this." She looked at the smiling toy with disgust.**

"**GIVE HIM BACK, MOMMY!"**

**His mother tossed it up in the air and then caught it.**

"**DON'T DO THAT! YOU'RE HURTING MAGGIE!"**

**She smiled and tossed it up in the air again.**

**She tossed it up many times, letting it bounce off the ceiling, almost amused by his son's strange love for a tiny toy.**

**Alan made a grab for his beloved Maggie, but she pushed him away.**

"**You know, we need the money…"**

"**NO!" **

"**Who knows what a perfectly good brand of toys might be worth in this neighborhood."**

"**MOMMY, PLEASE!"**

**She looped a stray hair of the toy around her finger and began twirling it.**

"**You've already got one toy…"**

"**I-IF YOU SELL HER I'LL RUN AWAY!"**

**His mother laughed and pinched his cheeks, making them bruise.**

"**Baby." She laughed again. "You won't run away! What would you do for money?"**

"**I--"**

"**Now if we sell your…Maggie thing, mommy will be able to buy us some dinner tonight."**

"**Why do you want to sell THIS toy?"**

"**Your rich grandma Lydia, from your daddy's side bought you this, right? Do you have any idea how ridiculously expensive this brand of toy is?"**

"**MOMMY!"**

**Gina looked down, and performed her crying ritual she still did to get what she wanted.**

"**D-don't you love your mommy?"**

**Alan frowned. "Yes! I love you! I love you this much!"**

**He spread his arms as wide as he could.**

"**Then why do you want her to starve?" She dabbed her fake tears away with a brittle hand.**

"**No I don't want you to stave, Mommy!"**

"**Daddy wanted us to starve. That's why he left us, baby. Because he didn't love us. We love each other, don't we?"**

"**I love you MORE than Daddy! Please don't cry."**

"**Then you won't mind if you give Maggie away, right?"**

**Alan sniffled and looked at his best friend through teary eyes. Maggie also seemed to look sad through her painted smile and dark eyes.**

**His stomach rumbled.**

"**Why can't you sell any of YOUR things?"**

"**Well, unlike this toy, Mommy NEEDS her things." She looked at him pleadingly. "Why, imagine mommy without her hair curler!" **

**She laughed heartily.**

**Alan sighed.**

"**Okay."**

**Gina smiled. "Okay? We can get rid of this old thing?" **

"**Yes."**

"**Because you love me, right?" she asked in a whiny tone.**

"**Because I love you."**

* * *


	25. Charlie

**This is the next chapterzio.**

**Please forgive me if my chapter is a bit cukoo…**

**You see, I have witnessed a horrific sight when my Geography teacher dropped a pencil and bent over to pick it up…**

**I have been traumatized ever since.**

**NOTE: I AM NOT Chinese and I am not Irish. You will be confused by this statement until you actually read this chapter.**

**I also don't like Orlando Bloom because my fragile heart belongs to the magnificent CHAD. **

**You won't understand this statement either because you have to read the chapter to understand a single bit of sanity being typed by me.**

**Leave a review on your way out, by the way. I love to get responses.**

**_Again, please forgive me for the pure insanity you are about to witness_…**

31

**-----MOUSE'S P.O.V.-----**

You know, by now, after everyone's finished digging their holes, we go to the Wreck Room.

On a regular day, I would've seen:

-X-Ray gambling shower tokens with the other camp members, winning every time. He would always stand up and dance around in circles and singing "Everyone Bow To Me."

-Zigzag would be watching the busted television he and I have so lovingly called "Kitty" . He would be blasting with laughter because 'Marcia had a bitch fight with Jan Brady'.

-Armpit would be breakdancing, making some people faint in place every time he raised his arms.

-Squid would be playing pool, complaining someone was cheating every time he lost.

-Magnet would be somewhere outside, or in other people's tents stealing small things like shampoo and q-tips. He once stole the Warden's spatula, and he tried using it as shovel…. He didn't finish until 8 P.M.

Idiot.

-Caveman would be attempting to play pool, or would just be sprawled on the couch picking his nose. Well, that's what he used to do before he began teaching Zero how to read.

-And Zero. Our beloved Zero would be sitting innocently on his cot, trying to spell the word "m-o-m-." I once heard him talk about his mother…

"I remember I lived in a yellow room," he said once.

But Zero was gone, now.

Zero's gone.

I went to the Wreck room with that one thought on my mind.

_Zero's gone._

Right after I stepped through the musty doorway, I noticed something was wrong.

Everybody was looking at…

Yes, I think they were looking at…

Me.

In case _you_, the reader haven't noticed…

I am one ugly beefcake…

Imagine an Asian with red hair. Now imagine that red-haired Asian with dark green eyes. Now add that horrific image with a stick-figure body and no boobs.

And there's me.

No need to blame my genes. My mother is Chinese, and my father happens to be Irish.

The only person who seemed to be interested in my non-existent ass was a Hillbillie from Houston who pinched my right butt cheek and asked if I had a sister.

I will repeat that: He asked if I had a sister.

He'd rather get a sister I never had than me.

Scary, isn't it?

Two boys were whispering in a very "manly" way and kept stealing glances in my direction.

One of them was good old Masher, and the other one had unhumanly red hair and freckles. For a 16-year old, he looked like a freckled eight-year old.

He wasn't…I repeat, he WAS NOT wearing an orange jumpsuit.

Why was he here, then? Was he new?

He was wearing this leather black jacket with blue jeans, and his red hair was swept back by too much gel. He also wore sunglasses too big for his face.

He looked like a skinny John Travolta with a bad dye job.

"Just watch" I heard him mumble confidently to his friend the Masher.

He swaggered towards me with an "attempted" masculine stride.

"Hya." he said in a very bad imitation of seduction.

I blinked.

"Spoon." I said.

One of his orange-red eyebrows raised over his sunglasses.

"Excuse me?" He said.

The tone in which he had said this struck a nerve... '_excuse me?'_

That sounded familiar.

I sighed. I was going through another one of those phases again. Like when I said I wanted M&M's.

Don't look at me that way!

It's not MY fault I'm like this you know…blame the naughty monkeys in bikinis that hide in the Warden's closet and whisper evil things to me…

"Spoon."

"Um…okay." He smiled.

"Spoon."

"My name's Charlie…Charlie Walker. You might know my mother…" His arrogance came up again, and he swiped his fingernails proudly upon his shirt. "The Warden."

I nodded patiently. "Spoon."

"I come every year during the summer when my dad goes out on business. You know, I've been looking forward to see the all-famous test-girl of Camp Greenlake."

He looked me up and down.

"Don't they let you wear bras in this place?" He asked, criticizing my flat chest.

This boy is evil.

My ears heated up and I looked away in shame.

I think I even whimpered.

He laughed nervously. "J-just kidding! You're really sexy! SEXY BYATCH! WOOHOO!" he said a little too loudly and everyone went quiet to look at him.

_Scary guy…scary guy…back away from the scary guy…_

"Spo-oO-on…"

"Uh kay… you know you're not very bright…Why did they send a Japaneseee girl here?"

He bent over so his height was level with mine.

" THIS. IS. AY-MERICA, JAPANEESEEE GIRL… GO BACK TO---"

Someone punched him in the face.

Surprise, surprise! It was me.

"Spoon!"

_TRANSLATION: I am Chinese, dumbass._

The boys in the background cheered and said things like, "You go, girl!"

Zigzag choked on a potato chip.

Armpit slapped ZigZag's back and he spat the potato chip at a C-tenter's face.

Caveman stared blankly, picking his nose.

"You fucking racist Spoon!" I cried with helpless tears in my eyes.

I stormed off.

---------------------------

Two days have passed, and Charlie was still lurking around, acting tough around the A-tenters.

Everytime he saw me, his eye twitched and he turned away.

"Not now, I'm busy thinking about Orlando Bloom."

_Who's that?_

"The love of my life."

_BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!_

"What the hell is so funny?"

_Um…your face!_

"That was original."

_Like you can think up of anything better._

_-_

_(A/N: Please forgive me for using Orlando Bloom. I just got really sick of my friends talking about him in shcool)_

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-

**--------DIGGING HOLES:--------**

**-----MAGNET'S P.O.V.------**

**(TRANSLATED FROM SPANISH TO ENGLISH BY THE OMNIPRESENT AUTHOR-PERSON)**

A cloud had passed over the sun. This was a miracle.

Mouse was digging her hole, and stopped as she stared darkly at the sun from over her shoulder.

"I hate you." she hissed through her clenched teeth.

Her wild eyes darted unstably around her eye sockets.

"I hate you, Sun!" she said a little louder, shaking her fist at the skies.

From the distance, the water truck arrived with lunch. The door opened and Mr. Sir and Charlie Walker stepped out.

"Alright, boys. Today's lunch is stale apples and expired muffins along with baloney sandwiches."

He spat a sunflower seed onto the ground.

"Enjoy."

Charlie set up the food and glanced at Mouse out of the corner of his eye. He wasn't wearing his sunglasses. He had a shiner on one eye.

I suddenly remembered Mouse had broken his sunglasses when she punched him in the face. This explain his black eye, too.

From behind me, I caught mouse talking to her lunch.

"Why don't you taste better?" she demanded her muffin.

Charlie looked at me confusingly.

"So she's always like that?" He asked worriedly.

"Not since a while ago." I said sadly.

"Listen, Magnet. Tell her I'm sorry I said that racist---"

"WHY DON'T YOU TASTE BETTER?" She demanded the muffin, her eyes were blaring with a glimmer of insanity.

Most people were used to her that way, but Charlie stared at her in frightened fascination.

"ANSWER ME!"

The muffin seemed to be trembling in fear.

"TASTE BETTER! I COMMAND YOU!"

People began…to stare.

Pendanski literally grabbed his gun.

The merciless cloud made a deal with the Sun, and evaporated, making the land extremely hot again.

Mouse covered her eyes as the brightness blinded her.

"THE LIGHT! THE LIGHT! THE MURDEROUS, CORROSIVE LIGHT!" She covered her eyes with her forearms.

Charlie's mouth opened, which might as well have attracted a swarm of 300 bees, and fit them all in there.

"YOU ARE USELES TO ME, YOU TASTELESS CRUMB!"

She shook the pitiful muffin violently in her hands.

"You deserve nothing but suffering!"

She threw the muffin up into the air, hoping it would knock the sun off the sky.

"TAKE THAT, SUN!"

Mouse stared motionlessly as it sailed into the blue yonder.

"Die… Die you fiend."

After laughing her head off, she went back to digging, as if nothing had happened.

A few seconds later, the muffin came plunging down and it bounced (way) off Armpit's large behind.

"Hey! Who did that?" Armpit turned around, tripped, and fell on his ass.

There was a silence, with the occasional snorting from some people who tried to contain their laughter.

"I said…**Who did that**?" Armpit glared at everyone accusingly.

Mouse jumped out of her four-foot hole with superhuman strength and pointed a jabbing finger at Squid.

"IT WAS **HE** WHO DEFIED YOU, MY LORD!"

Squid looked pale.

"What? No---I---She---I never--- I didn't…"

No one upsets Armpit.

No one.

Armpit rammed his blunt head towards the scared-stiff Squid like a charging goat. A very enormous goat.

He jumped 10 feet into the air and hurled himself towards Squid like a giant bowling ball towards a small, defenseless bowling pin.

"No no no no no no no no----"

And he _crushed_ the most wide-eyed Squid I've ever seen.

Everyone was quiet.

A tumbleweed passed by.

Still, everyone was quiet.

The silence was broken by the sound of a donkey.

Actually, it turned out that the donkey was Charlie Walker.

He was bending over and clutching his stomach with one hand, and pointing at Armpit with the other.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AHYUK! AHYUK! AHYUK! AHYUK!"

Everyone stared at him.

"OH MY GAWD! THAT IS THE FUNNIEST FUCKING THING I'VE EVER SEEN!"

He went on laughing.

And laughing…

And laughing…

Until Mouse crept up behind him and knocked him unconscious with his shovel.

She dropped the shovel and began doing a Native American victory dance around Charlie's unconscious body.

-------------------

An hour had passed, and Charlie had just woken up.

Even though he had almost died, Charlie decided to stay and watch D-Tent monotonously dig holes all day long.

He kept stealing glances at Mouse, who was now innocently digging her almost-finished hole.

Armpit kept snapping his head in Squid's direction every once in a while with a suspicious look on his face.

Squid was there, his knees were so weak he was trembling.

He was digging his hole with a large white bandage around his face. There was a large, bandaged ball in the middle of his face where his nose was supposed to be.

Everyone seemed to be mad at Mouse.

Well, except for me.

I'm the innocent one of the gang. I never cause trouble or find myself in confrontations of any kind.

Well, except for all those days when I sneak into people's tents and steal stuff….

Oh, and the times when I secretly steal things and make it look like someone else stole them just to cause trouble…

And then there were the moments when I take out Squid's toy and draw pictures all over it, and then make it look like someone else did it…

And there was that time when I threw that donut…

_That's enough stupid! You're getting irritante, ahora mismo._

Wow. I'm talking to myself….That's nice.

I need a taco.

…

Curses!

I broke another nail.

Damn those long hours of exhausting digging.


	26. Hello, My Name Is Chaos

* * *

**-----MOUSE'S P.O.V.-----**

I think I'm going to die…

I tripped over a chicken leg and fell on my face, and cut my hand after falling onto a shovel and the cut is swelling up and turning purple and I'm going to get gang green and I'm going to **die**.

In other news, X-Ray has decided to become sworn enemies with me, and Charles Walker has decided to throw fast food items at my face because he hates me.

Oh…and Pendanski quit.

Now Mr. Sir is temporarily our tent councilor.

That's another reason why I think I'm going to die.

I caught him talking to his gun and petting it.

And then he began singing songs to it.

I think at about that time, I was checking my pulse to see if I was still alive.

I turned the corner and caught all boys of D-tent, even the new guy who laughs like a pig, gathered together in a football huddle.

It kind of looked like a gay group hug.

"God, X-Ray! You're so smart!" came a voice from the gay group huddle.

That was obviously Squid.

"The plan's fool proof." X-Ray whispered proudly.

"Yeah, but what will Mouse say?" asked another.

"Will it matter?" scoffed X-Ray, "anything she says won't make any sense even if logic bit her ass."

My ears burned.

Twitch began laughing like a fucking pig in a popcorn machine and I wanted to take that visor and choke him with it! lerawr

Ooh…makes me feel all happy inside.

"You guys are incredibly rude." said Caveman. "You know, she was the first person to tell me I was a looser in a _nice_ way!"

"It IS pretty hard to do that." ZigZag agreed.

_How has the male species managed to live this long?_

"Hey guys!" I interrupted.

The boys jolted and lifted their heads all at the same time. Because they were stupidly bunched up in a group huddle, they bumped their heads.

I opened my mouth to say something sarcastic…

"Lil' girl, one snicker from you and I'll make sure you never laugh again."

_Don't worry, Armpit! I'm laughing INSIDE!_

Armpit snorted. A blob of snor popped from one of his nostrils and he hurried to wipe it off.

_Oh God, that was nasty._

"What were you guys so secretly planning?"

Everyone shifted guilty looks.

"Oh no. You've finally decided to kill me, haven't you?" I suddenly paled.

All boys immediately went to reassurance mode.

"No no, lil' girl!"

"That's not it at all!"

"How could you say that?"

"Then w-why were you having a meeting without me?" I asked, pouting.

"Well, we didn't think you could handle such a complicated, intricate, complexed, well-thought, elaborate---"

"JUST TELL ME!"

"We were planning our next escape."

I stared blankly.

"_**Next'**' escape?_

X-Ray looked at the floor in shame.

"Just how many escape plans did you think of?"

X-Ray kept looking at his shoes. "Well, maybe just one or two—"

"Man! We tried like, a hundred of X-Ray's plans! Butt all of them backfired."

X-Ray punched Squid in the face and Squid passed out.

All the boys went on talking as if nothing had happened.

"What is your recent plan. Then?" I asked innocently.

X-Ray's eyes lit up and he began explaining frantically.

"Okay. Tomorrow, while we're digging holes, ZigZag uses his invisibility powers to sneak up behind Mr. Sir without him noticing…"

ZigZag nodded his head proudly.

"And THEN he takes out Mr. Sir's gun and blackmails him to call our lawyers. The lawyers will come and arrest Mr. Sir and everyone else who works in this stupid hellhole. But instead of going back home with our lawyers, we run away to the place that Magnet went to-- God's thumb. You see, if we went with the lawyers, we would end up going to jail anyways. And---"

Hmm... yes...

"What if the lawyers come after you with cheese bazookas?"

"Well, then we'll use our Japanese throwing stars to knock the bazookas off them, and we'll make a run for it. After we get to God's thumb, we'll dig an underground tunnel to China and live there as humble taxi drivers until we get enough money to go back to the U.S."

X-Ray sighed happily and his eyes dazed off to La La Land. A little drool came out fo the corner fo his mouth as he sighed.

"Wow, X-Ray. You genius, you! I wonder why none of your plans haven't worked."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----

**-----THE NEXT MORNING-----**

"Please! Jeez, Louise!" said a rhyming, yet familiar voice heard from outside the tent.

I groggily opened my eyes.

Dammit. Two o'clock.

"You have to take me back! I've gone out and traveled the world and now I'm back. I realized you meant more to me than a real life and a family and lots of money..."

"Walter, you've only been gone for two days." said the Warden.

Walter, otherwise know as Pendanski, otherwise known as Safari Man, otherwise known as---

_Stop with the names, already!_

EHEM!

...otherwise known as Smokey the Bear, otherwise known as Faggie Macdoogle, began crying so loudly a B-Tenter began swearing.

"PLEASE TAKE ME BACK!" I heard Pendanski scream in pitiful agony. "Quitting was a mistake... And I can't _stand_ knowing Mr. Sir is responsible for my D-Tent babies!"

_Aww... Safari Man actually cares about us._

I smiled.

There was a long, long, long, pause.

"Alrighty then." The Warden said.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**-----DIGGING OUT IN THE HOT, HOT SUN-----**

**(DAMN, I'M THIRSTY)**

This Charlie fucker is getting on my nerves.

At first, being the arrogant honker that leaped out of the movie _Grease_, he changes drastically in the past few days and turned into some pathetic loser that keeps sniffing peoples' stuff.

Instead of being a polite member of society and switching from one tent to the next, he seems to enjoy the eccentricity of D-Tent's Diligents.

He doesn't leave us D-Tenters alone!

He would be reading over my shoulder, or watching me dig my hole, or asking me questions about my favorite Powerpuff Girl (he likes Blossom because she has the same color hair as he does) or even sniffing our shovels.

I think he's traumatized by that day I kicked him in the ball...s.

-

I was 1/3 finished with my hole.

I heard this _sniff sniff _behind me.

I turned around slowly (like a possessed doll) and Charlie was there sniffing my hair.

"Shampoo...nice...hair...looks like...rust..."

I forgot to mention his fragmented speaking.

"Please go away."

I became dizzy. " I'm seeing yellow spots..."

Suddenly Charlie's eyelids widened and he looked like a cheaply-made dummy.

"I'm seeing them, too..."

I slowly looked to my right and screamed...

"OOH! OH MY GOD! GET IT OFF OF ME! GET IT OFF OF MEEEEEEEEEE!"

It was a yellow-spotted lizard.

"GET IT OOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFF!"

Charlie's bright eyes became even brighter and his back straightened. He looked like one of those cartoon heroes you see on T.V. Like Dudley Doo Right.

"I'll save you!" He said in his deep hero's voice.

He grabbed the lizard and tossed it as far as he could...

It landed two feet away from us.

"Well that didn't work."

We both stared at the immobile iguana-gecko thing.

_Then that's when I realized..._

"Charlie, there's something I think you should know---"

He held up a hand in front of my face. "No need to thank me, mi'lady. Now if you excuse me, I have a job to do!"

He strutted towards the limp lizard and picked it up brutally.

"Poor thing..." I heard Magnet sob from behind me.

"Charlie, before you do anything stupid---"

Again, he shushed me and walked towards Dr. Pendanski, who was filling canteens by the water truck.

"Oh, Walter!" he said in a singsong voice, calling Dr. Pendanski by his first name. "Walter, I just saved someone from appending doom! LOOKIE!" He cried, his voice was now squeaky again.

"Stop!" I cried, not wanting the embarrassing moment to take place.

Dr. Pendanski looked disgustedly at the tiny lizard and sniffed as if something smelled really bad.

It was the lizard.

"Charles," he said, "_this lizard's been dead for a while_."

Charlie's face drooped. He looked 80 years old.

His face reddened and he spun around, hurling the dead corpse in my direction.

I shrieked and batted the poor thing off with my shovel.

It sailed through the air and landed in Magnet's arms.

Magnet started bawling like a small child and he hugged the tiny, torn-up creature to his cheek. one of its rotted limbs became loose and fell off.

Magnet picked it up with his two fingers and cried even louder.

Twitch began laughing like a fucking idiot.

"Haa hee ho! (-snort-) Ho ho ho! Ha HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (-snort-)"

Squid, watching stupidly at everything that was taking place, looked at Magnet with the lizard, and threw up.

Then Armpit threw up.

X-Ray was still reliving his plan to escape as he eagerly watched Zigzag creep up behind Mr. Sir and reached for his gun.

"I am invisible, I am colorless, I am Invisible, no one can see me..." Zigzag muttered under his breath.

Charlie was running around, chasing me in his avenging rampage.

Pendanski fainted because of all the chaos.

Utter chaos.

It was because of this utter chaos that no one noticed Stanley Yelnats, the Neanderthal, climb into the water truck and start the engine.

_Vroooom! Churtle, churtle._

Everyone stopped what they were doing and held their breath as they spotted Caveman staring ahead, scared out of his skin.

"Zero, this is for you," he whispered.

Suddenly I had an idea.

I ran towards Magnet and yanked the dead lizard from his fragile hands.

"No!" He sobbed, reaching pitifully for the dead creature.

"It's too late, boy." I said, sounding like a Sea captain of a sinking ship. "He's dead. There was nothing you could do."

He screamed and began crying again, bowing down before me.

I picked him up by his shoulders and slapped his face.

"For God's sakes! Get your act together, man!" I said, still in the Captain mood.

Then I had an idea;

I dropped myself onto the dust, letting my shovel bounce atop the ground with loud clanking sounds.

Clutching my leg, I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"OOOOH! HELP ME! HEEELPP! THE LIZARD CAME BACK TO LIFE AND BIT ME! WILL SOMEONE SAVE A POOR, BEAUTIFUL, PERFECT DAMSEL IN DISTRESS?"

Charlie, who had previously stopped chasing me and was sniffing Armpit, looked up like a deer that sensed danger.

"I'm coming, my love! I'm coming!"

Smokey the bear, or Pendanski, rushed towards me with Band-Aid and duct tape.

Mr. Sir began shooting at the already dead lizard as Magnet screamed helplessly in the background.

All of the other boys, seeing the chance, dropped their shovels and jumped on top of the back of the truck.

"Wait!" X-Ray cried, "What about _MY_ plan to escape?"

"Just get on the truck!"

Caveman pressed the gas pedal and the truck swerved away with a cloud of dust.

Suddenly two large hands grabbed my waist and I felt myself being lifted into the air.

"We are going to take a trip." said Charlie's voice behind me.

Then, only something from a crazy story written by a psycho 14-year-old with no life happened...

He began _running_ towards the truck that was accelerating in speed and was already far away!

He ran faster and faster, with me crying like a dying baby, cradled in his gawky arms.

"I am faster than a speeding bullet!" He cried nerdily with glee.

And it seemed like he was.

We were quickly getting closer to the truck.

In just seconds the boys were pulling us into the moving truck.

Panting, Charlie sat beside Zigzag and fainted.

"You alright, Mouse?" Armpit asked, dusting off my orange jumper.

"Tee hee! _Ponies_!" I giggled.

Then _I_ fainted.

Just before all the lights of my failing brain went out, I heard the echoing voice of X-Ray sulking.

"_My_ plan was better."

* * *

**I really can't wait for the feedback on this one. Please tell me what you think.**

**-**

**Perky.Pyromanac: I love pinguins. They are goddamn cute! Although my _friend _Czelene would have to disagree on that.  
ArwenEvenstar83: The Maggie thing was kind of just something picked out of my mental hat. Whoah, your last review was really long with all those referrals. I love your reviews.  
Fk306 animelover: I haven't heard from you in a while. And Gina is based on a member of my family... actually all of them.---Scary, isn't it?  
Nosilla: Insanity is the only way to fly. Not to mention getting stoned. That gets you way up there.  
janaRaY3: Hey thanks. You're a good reviewer. ;) I'd actually like to read on of your stories if you want to make one.  
VeriTEra : Okay. Here I go: I was playing pool (or a pathetically altered version of it) in a gameroom of a hotel. I was supposed to break. I took the long pool stick-thingy and unprofessionally swiped it upon the defenseless white ball. The triangleof balls exploded and I knocked four solids (not in the same pocket) into their"sanctuary." Not to mention a couple onto the floor, on a video game player, and one that bounced of mycousin'sleft boob. (Thank God for gel bras)... I was remebering that moment and that resulted in that bit of my chapter. ... Anyhoo, thanksso muchfor reviewing.  
Lilmizzrebel: I think if you had adopted Squid you would be chasing him with a spoon of porredge and telling him to eat your dinner. He can be a very bad little boy sometimes and you might need to use the tranquilizer.  
EugeleeV: This one was just made for fun anyway. Though I love writing all different kinds of stories.  
**


	27. Freedom Is Overrated

**Yesterday morning, I got out of bed and tripped over a pillow and landed on a stuffed animal I had never seen before. It was some kind of retarded purple fuzzy thing that looked like Jubjub from I wandered through the halls, asking each member of my family if they had anything to do with the frightening doll that had suddenly appeared in my room. They all denied.**

**Lately, Jubjub has been whispering things in my ear like, "I am the evil, evil King of Fuzzabaloon. Do what I say and I shall spare your life."**

**I had finally realized I'm becoming more like Mouse every passing moment, and that is not a good thing.**

**Jubjub tells me he is now my muse. If I don't type down what he says, he will chop off my head and feed it to the magical time-traveling elves.**

**JUBJUB: That's not true! Don't listen to her! I am an innocent, cute little purple fuzzy jubjub and I like happy things. HAPPY, HAPPY THINGS! (-twitch-)**

**Jubjub is evil. Someone please release me from its evil Jubjub ways.**

**JUBJUB: fuck you!... I mean coughThankcough you! I hiccupped and it came out wrong. (heh he heh...heh...?)**

_**THANKS A LOT MAD4MAGIK FOR ALL THE GREAT REVIEWS! HERE'S THE COOKIE YOU WANTED. UNFORTUNATELY IT CANNOT GO THROUGH THE COMPUTER SCREEN, SO I'LL SHOW MY APPRECIATION BY EATING IT MYSELF...**_

**QUESTION TO READERS: d**o you agree with MeltedIcecreamIsMe and DisasterZone16 about Charlie? It seriously didn't cross my mind, and I'm kind of stuck on that.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

33

Fate.

You're actually not supposed to change it...

Actually you can't.

So I don't really know how_ I _did it.

-

Caveman sat proudly at the driver's seat with his chubby hand upon the steering wheel of Mr. Sir's water truck.

Fuzzy dice thingies dangled from the rearview mirror, bouncing as the truck zoomed at high speed towards nowhere.

Caveman had some sort of happy form of road rage as he screamed at the top of his lungs.

"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEO! WHEEEEEEEO!"

Mr. Sir was blindly shooting at us with his pathetic hand gun. The farther the truck drove away, the smaller he looked.

Pendanski was still unconscious on the ground.

And where was _I_ during all this?

I was in a sleeping-coma thing, dreaming about guavas and magical beer bottles.

The truck bounced on a pebble that, I, the author, had magically dropped into the scene.

I woke up from my fainty-thing to find Charlie crying and wiping his nose on Armpit's sleeve.

"No! You can't die! You can't!" he was still screaming even after I woke up.

"Shut up." I said.

He kept bawling.

"PLEASE DON'T DIEEEEEEEEEE!"

I sat up and slapped him across the face.

He gasped in terror.

"Sweet Mother of Shiny Objects! She came back from the dead! She came back from the---"

"CAVEMAN, WATCH OUT!" I cried.

Caveman stopped screaming his head off and his eyes absorbed the terror as he barely drove into a _hole_.

"Whew." he said. "I wonder what would have happened if I ran into that hole!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**------- 3 HOURS LATER-------**

"Yo." someone was shaking my shoulder.

I had fallen asleep again.

"Yo, Hamster, wake up." said the voice.

_HAMSTER?_

I snapped my eyes open and was greeted by the handsome face of Satan...

CHARLIE! I mean CHARLIE!

"It's Mouse." I corrected, shaking my finger, "a hamster is a different shape, color, and its ears are weirder."

He slapped my face playfully, yet annoyingly.

"Whatever, Gerbil."

Suddenly, Zigzag's arm popped out from behind Charlie's head and had him in a headlock in a split second.

How he did that on the back of a moving water truck I'll never know.

"Don't make fun of her name, Pretty Boy." he sneered. "I gave it to her."

Charlie choked.

X-Ray's sulking face suddenly brightened.

"Tee hee... _Pretty Boy_..." he shook his head. "Hey, _Pretty Boy_, welcome to the club."

Zigzag released his hold on Charlie's now purple neck.

"WHOA! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" cried Caveman from the front seat.

We all stood up and looked where Caveman was pointing to.

It was a small lump. As the truck drove closer, it dawned to me that the "lump" was a tiny, upturned boat.

When we arrived, we saw two legs poking out from the bottom of the canoe-boat thing.

"Oh my God." I heard Caveman say in quite a shaky voice.

Well, what any reader would expect to happen next is obviously for the truck to stop and rescue Zero from his fated doom.

But the truck just slowly passed him!

"Uh, Caveman?" I tapped the glass behind his head. "We are supposed to go _towards_ the little boat. Not _away_ from it."

"I don't know how to stop the truck."

"Well," I said, putting on my thinking face, "I think you press that little pedal, beside the _big_ one."

Caveman looked stupidly at his feet as he stepped on the break pedal. The truck stopped easily.

"Now, see that stick beside your right hand? I want you to push it to the "P"."

He did what I told him to.

I clapped my hands.

"Very good!"

Caveman turned red.

"Aw shucks! It was nothin'."

We all hopped off of the truck.

Running like a mother to a lost child, Caveman raced towards the spindly orange legs sticking out of the hole under the boat. Then he stopped abruptly.

"Zero!" he cried.

The legs moved.

They disappeared into the hole and were replaced by a dust-smeared face.

"Zero!" Caveman cried again.

Wow. Zero's face looked worse than my neighbor's dog.

He saw us and opened his mouth to exclaim something joyful, but he choked and threw up on himself.

"Zero!" Caveman said again, still not moving from his place

_God, can people get any stupider? _

"Whoa, look! A cactus!." said Squid from behind me.

_Wow._

Since Caveman was still sobbing over his long lost friend, who by the way was three feet away from him, I was the only one with enough coughsanitycough to go over there and get Zero out of that Hellhole!

I mean H. E. Double hockey sticks ---hole.

"Zero, are you stuck?"

"Yeah. I guess I took too much of it at one time. That stuff can be very filling." he said in a hoarse voice.

"What stuff?"

"Sploosh."

"What's Sploosh?" asked Squid from behind me.

"It's the shit that's been keeping me alive while you are at camp enjoying yourselves!" he croaked.

"Dude!" said Squid, wrinkling his annoyingly perfect nose, "you actually ate _shit_?"

Zero hacked in all the saliva he had left and spat at Squid's face.

Armpit looked at Squid, then at Zero, then at Squid again. He went over to Zero and hugged him.

Zero fainted.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I seem to put a lot of fainting people in this chapter. But it's so much fun!

Armpit carried Zero's poor, defenseless little body onto the truck.

I emptied some water into my canteen that had been attached to my waist and gave it to Zero. He drank ALL of it.

I know you're not supposed to give salted food to a dehydrated person, but the sunflower seeds were all we had besides an unused condom dating back 10 years and an empty can of beer and Dolly Parton albums.

Suddenly, over the desert horizon, I spotted the silhouette of a giant ice cream cone!

_Whoa...ice cream cone._

"Naw." said Armpit, "looks like a _thumb_ to me."

_Oh yeah...that._

------------------------------------------------------------------------

**-----AROUND 1 HOUR LATER-----**

"Uh oh... you guys... uno problemo." Caveman said from the front seat.

"Your Spanish sucks!" booed Magnet who was still sulking about the dead lizard and also slightly carsick.

"What's going on?" asked X-Ray.

"We ran out of gas."

"WHAT!" X-Ray screamed as if his boy---girlfriend had been cheating on him.

"Yeah. Um...that's why the truck stopped if you haven't noticed."

"But we have to walk all the way now!"

X-Ray stood up and jumped off of the truck, reciting dramatic lines from Shakespeare and doing pirouettes.

"WHY!" he cried into the desert echoes, "WHYYYYYYYYYYY!"

I tapped him on the shoulder.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your heart-breaking form of stupidity, but the Big Thumb is four steps away from where you are standing."

I pointed upwards.

X-Ray stopped and looked up.

"Oh..." he sniffed. "Alrighty then."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We grabbed some water and sunflower seeds, and as many things we could find that we might need later.

"Okay guys. Start climbing."

I did a head count to make sure that no one had...umm...died.

"Where's Squid?"

I spotted him bent over the driver's seat of the truck. He got out and pulled out the condom he had found in the glove department.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!"

He looked at me, then at the condom packet, dusting it off.

"We might need it." he said.

"Alan M. Smith, put that back in the car or I will make sure you have nothing to use that _with_!"

Squid shrieked dropped the object on the ground as if it was diseased.

Dragging his feet, he slowly walked towards the rest of the group.

"Durex..." he mumbled, "it was a good brand, you know."

_Ew...just...ew._

"Hey, where's Twitch?"

Squid shrugged.

"Last time I saw him he was poking at that dead lizard with his shovel."

"So we left him all alone with a crazy maniac with a gun and a witch with poisoned nails that can scratch his eyes out?"

"Basically."

"Oh shit."

-

_-(montage) time skip-_

We were halfway up the hill.

I reached a small ledge in the middle if the cliff and propped myself upon it.

"Magnet," I scanned the rockface for any sight of Magnet..

"What?" he grunted, having difficulty climbing.

"Where's the map you found before?"

"What map?"

"The one you found last time you came here."

"A map!" yelled X-Ray suddenly. "How come no one told me about a map?"

"We were afraid you would uh...feed it to...erm...Mr. Sir."

Struggling to keep himself balanced, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out the cylindrical map container.

I grabbed it and rolled open the map...

_What the...?_

"Hey... that's weird."

"What?" asked Armpit, who was having a hard time carrying his weight up the cliff.

"X marks the spot, right?" I quoted.

"So?"

"Well on the map I see _two_ X's"

I tilted my head to the right. "_And there are six names signed at the bottom. They look kind of familiar.._."

Zero, who was the second best climber, (me, being the one and only most skilled climber in the whole world : ) climbed up on the ledge and sat beside me, panting.

"Have some water," I said, not taking my eyes off the map.

"Can't" he wheezed, "Caveman has it."

"And where's Caveman?"

I looked over the ledge and spotted Caveman, who was still at the bottom of the cliff! He had never even moved at all!

"WHAT'S THE MATTER?" I shouted down.

The figure at the base of the cliff didn't move.

"I...IM AFRAID OF HEIGHTS!" he shouted up to me.

"You're strong now! Just climb up! If we could do it, so can you!"

"BUT I'M FAT!" he cried up.

"So? Look at Armpit. He's doing okay."

"Hey!" Armpit butted in.

"Whoah!" gasped Caveman in surprise at the base of the cliff.

We all looked down to see what had happened.

A strong...and I mean STRONG gust of wind swept under Caveman's body and pushed him up the hill.

"Holy shit!" said Charlie.

The gust of wind dropped Caveman at the top of the hill on God's thumb as we watched him shoot up like a really fat rocket.

There was a silence.

_That was weird._

**_YOU SAID IT!_** sighed familiar voices.

"Shit! The wind tawked!" gasped Squid, almost loosing his balance.

"I _told_ you I heard voices in the night!" I crossed my arms.

"I wanna ride!" whined ZigZag. "How come Caveman gets the easy way to the top?"

_**BECAUSE**_

Just then it looked like the gust of wind gave Armpit a high-five.

"Are you leaving now or are you going to torture us the whole way up until we loose our minds?"

_**ERM...THE SECOND ONE.**_

I snorted.

"Aw! Let 'em stay, Mouse! I kind of like freaky voice thingies!" said Squid.

**_SEE? NOW WHY WASN'T HE FROM OUR FAMILY?_**

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**If you have a chance to read leencz's story and manage to review, tell her I wasn't flaming her. I don't really know why she thought I was. My reviews kept getting deleted. I feel really guilty.**

**Anyhoo, the shoutouts:**

**DisasterZone16: Thank you so much, and the spelling mistakes... I'm just so lazy, I go over to fix them all only once a month.**

**MeltedIcecreamIsMe: Your review kinda scared me a little, but it made me laugh none the less. Actually, there are some other stories that are quite good. Like INDIAN RAIN.  
leencz: Iluvpony? Wth?  
ArwenEvenstar83: I kind of imagined it like a cartoon. And yeah, I thought it was about time to add another character. I can't wait to show u goys the next chapter!  
Fk306 animelover: I made X-Ray kind of desperate to be a leaderin my story. I dunno, It just seems more like him that way.  
Nosilla: thanks.  
Perky.Pyromaniac: Actually, quite the contrary. She's obsessed with penguins. One time I mentioned the word "penguin" and I think she said "don't say its name in vain" or something like that. I'm more of a squirrel person. Lol. I read your story, and _Fangirl_ should get a life.  
MAD4Magik: Thanks for all the reviews! They meant a lot. And I still can't believe you're already on chapter 25. Coolios. Thank you so much! **

**FrostedWindows: I'll fix that sooner or later. (yawn)**


	28. Not My Kind Of Romance

**Hey, review! I want to get some feedback. I'd like to hear from _Illustratedperson_.**

**_Leencz:_ please sign in your real name and stop making up ones so you can flame me... it's getting a little annoying. Love, Alfalfa.**

-

34

We reached the top of the hill with a feeling of triumph.

Caveman was already there, drinking from his canteen and lounging lazily.

He yawned.

"What took you guys so long?" he asked with a smirk.

ZigZag did a war cry and ran over and choked him.

I was still studying the map.

"So where do we go now, Mouse?" asked Magnet.

"Hey! Aren't you supposed to be asking _me_ that?" X-Ray huffed. "_I'm_ the leader!"

"Then go lead your way out of my face."

I traced the path we took on the map and placed my finger on where we were. Then I saw somwthing that wasn't supposed to be there...

"There is like, this squiggly thing next to a picture of a thumb." I said.

Caveman walked towards me and peered at the map over my shoulder.

"Yeah. The thumb is obvious...but I think the squiggly thing is the symbol for a river."

"What kind of moron would draw a river in the middle of the desert?"

"Don't you hear it?" asked Caveman.

"Hear what?"

"Running water!"

We all strained our ears.

There was a distant _swish gurgle swish._

We sprinted towards the sound and there it was.

An oasis.

"Praise the Lord!" Armpit said, raising his arms.

I heard a splash from behind me as the boys jumped happily into the small pond and began drinking the water.

"Eeeeeew! The water's brown!" I pointed and shrieked in my girly voice.

The boys stopped and stared in my direction.

They laughed as if I had said a joke and resumed continuing to drink the water.

"Hey, look at this!" Zigzag said, tugging at a bunch of leaf blades and pulling them out of the ground.

A plump white beet was attached to the grass blades.

_Why would beets grow in a desert?_

"That's not a beet!" said Armpit, biting into one of the strange looking things-that-looks-like-a-beet-but-isn't and chewed with happiness. "It's a giant onion!"

I pulled one of them out of the ground, washed it in the water and used my ultra power hygiene to clean it off. I bit into it.

"Why would there be onions in a place like this?"

* * *

**-----EVENING: GOD'S THUMB-----**

"So when are we going to go follow the map?"

Zigzag yawned.

"I'm tired. We'll all do it tomorrow."

"But we're about to _uncove_r history here!" I complained.

"Let's _uncover_ some sleep before all that. It's already dark anyways." Caveman said.

I gave in and finally admitted I was tired, as well.

"Fine."

* * *

And so we slept. The crickets chirped their ways into our dreams and the stars became our nightlights.

For the first time in months, we were cold.

The boys were curled up in a huddled group next to a boulder.

They kind of looked like a herd of sheep as they found a spot on the sand and went to sleep.

I, being a _female_, risked my comfort and laid down a distance away from the boys. Even though the temperature was as cold as a polar bear's ass.

"Mouse, why are you out there in the cold? Come over here with us." said Charlie sleepily, yet tauntingly.

I backed away.

"No thanks. I'd rather stay here in this nice, cozy spot, away from the chances of being smothered or raped in my sleep." I said cheerfully.

"But it's cold. You're gonna wake up blue in the face."

"If you're THAT worried, make a fire." I retorted.

Half asleep, Caveman began to sing... " If only, if only, we had some fire wood. Then we wouldn't be as cold as we should...While the Mouse waits away, shivering with frostbite, she cries to the magical muffin; if only, if only."

"That sounds familiar..." mumbled Magnet to himself, half asleep.

"Yeah..." Squid said, hearing what Magnet said. "Me too."

"Me too."

"Me too."

"Me too."

Zero just smiled.

Caveman yawned and began singing in his sleep,

_If only, if only, the woodpecker sighs_

_The bark on the tree was just a little bit softer_

_While the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely_

_He cries to the mo-oo-n_

_If only, if only_

A strong gust of wind swept past my face and around Stanley, then Zero.

**_IT IS DONE_**, said the wind

-

A long passing of time went by.

I was probably the only one awake.

It wasn't this cold at camp...

"C-cold. N-need ...toaster oven"

_Then go next to the boulder and the pond where the guys are!_

"Pfft! Like I'm going to risk being raped and killed and thrown to wild, hungry dragons!"

_You had months to get to know everyone there, and you still don't trust them._

"But---"

_You're a moron._

I began to cry. "I'm not a moron!" I said loudly.

_Shut up! Do you want to wake them up?_

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**MEANWHILE...**

**-----CHARLIE'S P.O.V.-----**

"ZigZag... Why is Mouse talking to herself?" I whispered "It's getting kind of frightening."

"She's possessed." ZigZag said casually.

"How do you know?"

"I just know these things."

I rolled over on my back to face the stars.

"Hey lookie! Those stars look like a shape of a guy farting!" I exclaimed.

"Cool. That one looks like a campfire." ZigZag said.

"That one looks like Mouse's hair."

"That one looks like a ball of fire."

"A mousey!" I said.

"A flame!" he pointed to a cluster of more stars.

"A _flying spork_!"

"A matchstick."

"A poop."

"A flaming marshmallow."

"Mouse's eyes"

"A fire engine"

"A baby mouse!"

"Stop doing stuff related to fire." I said.

"Look. I can't help what the stars do."

He sneezed. "And why do you keep saying stuff that have to do with Mouse?"

"Um... Look! I can't help what the stars do!" I shifted my position, "and plus, Mouse is neither a flying spork or a poop."

-silence-

"Hey, ZigZag. You used to have a girlfriend, right?"

"Uh…g—d—yeah. YEAH! Ooooh! I used to get lots of those! I attracted girlies like flies to an air conditioner!"

"What do flies have to do with an air conditioner?"

"Uh…"

"Well…how did you get so many?"

"So many what?"

"So many chicks following you around?"

"Well…first, I'd give 'em all these signals, see. Like, tawk all soft and sexy. And touch her a lot."

"And?"

"And then I would look at her with these shiny eyes, see."

"How the hell do you make your eyes shiny?"

"Well, _you_ can't do it." Zigzag's head shot up from the shadows.

" _I'm_ double jointed." he said proudly.

"How does being double jointed help you make your eyes shiny?"

He took a deep breath;

"I don't know."

"Well, what if you CAN'T make your eyes shiny?"

"Well then you compliment her boobs, or something."

"Well then what if----"

"You know what's weird? For once, you're asking someone else for advice instead of someone coming to _you_. "

"Well…then what happens after _that_, Zig?" I said, ignoring ZigZag's observation.

ZigZag seemed to be thinking of something to say,

"Then you smack her butt." he concluded.

"Are you sure you're supposed to do that?"

"Um…HELLO? I'm the expert here, remember? You smack her butt. Girls like being hit on the ass."

"What if the girl doesn't like being touched?"

"What kind of girl _doesn't_ like being touched?"

"Uh…"

"Is there a specific girl you're tawkin about?"

"No. It just…just…some girls don't like to be touched."

* * *

**-----MOUSE'S P.O.V.-----**

"That. Is. it!" I rubbed my eyes in frustration. "I can't sleep."

_Don't TRY to. It just makes it harder._

I got up and began wandering around restlessly.

I stopped by a large bunch of onions which lay temptingly beside each other.

"They look so tasty..."

I reached over to grab one.

_Don't even think about it!_

"But I'm so hungry!"

_There's that empty bag of sunflower seeds you can chew on..._

"Why can't I eat the onion?"

_They give you bad breath._

"And an empty bag of sunflower seeds doesn't? It's made of synthetic! It will give me cancer or something!"

I laid on my back and began counting stars, hoping it would help me sleep.

"Hey." said a voice behind my head.

I sat up and looked around.

"Barney? Baby Bob...is that you?" I asked happily.

"Uh...no. It's Charlie."

"Hey. You're not sniffing things anymore!" I realized.

"Yeah. I think it was the camp food that was making me all weird. After eating the onions I felt different."

"Does this "different" have anything to do with flatulence?"

Charlie backed away.

"N-no."

I stood up.

"Go back to sleep. You're kind of scaring me with your presence." I said.

Charlie put on a look of hurt.

"That was mean." he said. "Apologize."

I replied with a bored yawn.

Charlie's expression changed and he stepped forward.

His eyes scanned his memory as if he was remembering what to say. Like he rehearsed it, or something.

He began to blink uncontrollably.

"Do you have a tick?" I asked.

"I'm trying to make my eyes shiny."

"You're actually kind of making them red..."

"That's probably because I'm not double jointed."

"What does being double jointed have to do with making your eyes shiny?"

He stopped blinking and looked around nervously.

"Um...eh... you have very nice boobies."

"Are you talking to me?"

"I think so."

I looked down at my chest region, searching for any signs of female biology that would make my dear friend say such an audacious thing.

I looked at him incredulously.

"Are you blind?"

He grew frustrated. "Look! I'm just saying---"

"You're acting very strangely. Go away."

He looked at me, dumbfounded.

Suddenly he reached over and almost slapped my ass before I turned around and shrieked so loud it actually echoed into the desert.

"What are you doing!?"

Charlie frowned.

"Aren't I doing _anything_ right?"

"No, not really."

Charlie's eyes sank into his face and he outed like a five-year old. He sat down and began crying.

"Whhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" he screeched. "WHHHYYYYYY!"

He buried his head in his manicured hands. (Well...they **look** manicured...)

I sat down next to him, not really knowing what to do.

"Shut up!" said X-Ray's faint, distant voice. "We're sleeping here!"

We both ignored him.

"What do I do?" I pleaded to no one in particular.

_Do something a girl would do. I know it's hard, but try._

I lifted a stiff hand and patted Carlie's head two or three times.

"There, there." I said awkwardly.

He lifted his head from his hands and looked at me. His face was all red and blotchy.

"You look like a tomato." I said simply.

His bottom lip quivvered.

I heard from a very realiable source oncethat too many onions can mess with your head. After all, this Charlie boy never acted this way before, for God's sakes!

I gave him a quick awkward hug.

"There you go. Stop crying."

He looked at me for a long while, he bit his lip nervously.

I guess what happened next was the most awkward, but nicest moment of my life. Until know, I still can't figure out why, through all my repulsiveness towards his cocky behavior and manicured hands...

that I let him kiss me.

Then I just slapped his face so hard there was a red imprint of my hand on the right side.

I swear to my magic toilet bowl, whoever was watching us thought we were rehearsing for a dramatic play.

"You're a fucking psycho, you are!" I screamed and stood up.

_Uh oh...Calm, Mousey, calm._

X-Ray's voice came up again from the distance; "You guys can you please be qu---"

"SHUT UP AND GO BACK TO SLEEP!"

I turned to the trembling boy sitting on the floor. He looked like a frightened three-year old.

"And YOU!" I pointed with a scolding finger. "You're 16 years old and you act like a damn baby!"

I brought my face close to his ear.

"It's time to grow up, now, youngen."

Charlie's face became green. He looked sick.

**_JEEZ. HE'S JUST LIKE HIS GREAT GRANDFATHER. _**nagged a whisper of voices behind me.

I turned that direction.

Talking Ancestors can be as annoying as a fly up your ass. (Fortunately, I've never had the experience of a fly up my ass)

"When I want you to talk, I'll ask you!"

_**JEEZ.**_

I turned back to Charlie, not noticing he looked even sicker. His face was even more distorted He looked like he was about to throw up.

"I don't know what came over you today! You should be ashamed of yourself, young man!" I shouted.

_**JEEZ.**_

"Do you want me to ground you?" I demanded.

**_YOU SOUND JUST LIKE YOUR PARENTS, LIL' GIRL._**

Charlie bent over and threw up.

He stopped, wiped his mouth with his black leather sleeve and looked up at me with teary eyes, still red from his childish bawling.

"Hey cool," I said, "You finally got your eyes to become shiny!"

He bent over and threw up a second time.

And a third.

And a fourth.

And a fifth.

I had warned him previously not to eat so many fucking onions!

But I had a feling it wasn't just because of the onions...

"Are you pregnant, Charlie?"

He looked at me again andwiped his mouth with his sleeve. He turned his body away from mine and sat so his knees were pulled up to his chest. He hugged them tightly as he stared off into the dark distance, sniffling.

_You always have to screw everything up!_

I walked slowly towards Charlie and put my hand on his shoulder.

He flinched it off.

"You suck big time." he said, not looking at my face.

"I know."

"And sixteen is not THAT old, you know."

"I know."

"A-and you were really mean just now. You hurt my feelings."

"I know."

"And I really _did_ like your boobies, you know."

"I kn--- EXCUSE ME?"

His head turned a little just enough for me to see the tip of his nose.

"You think I'm pretty?" I suddenly heard myself asked. I both felt like I was going to laugh, and go put on some lipgloss at the same time.

"No. Not really. I seriously don't know why I like you." He shrugged.

I did an anime sad face and kicked his ribs.

"OW! Why do I always seem to say the wrong things?"

_**BECAUSE YOU'RE A DESCENDANT OF TROUT WALKER, THAT'S WHY,**_ one of the ancestors said whilst 'laughing' in a breezy, ghost-like way.

I stuck out my arm for him to reach. He took it with his 'cleaner' hand and pulled himself up.

"I'm going to sleep."

Charlie yawned.

"Be careful not to step over your vomit on your way." I said, turning around.

There was a swishing sound behind me and a high-pitched yelp as something heavy splashed onto a puddle of vomit.

**_YUP... HE'S DEFINITELY A WALKER_**

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**Allors, mes amis. Ici il ya tes reponses.**

_**They are pretty long for some of you, but that's just because I tend to ramble.**_

**VeriTEra: What does 'VeriTEra' mean? **

**Fangirl: You, no offense, are cruel. You have superiority complex.  
Perky.Pyromaniac: Mr. Sir is a man of many enigmas. I questioned his authority once and he spat a sunflower seed at my face. And you know what? I read over the chapters and I really did kind of notice my Charlie character goes with Mouse like flies to an air conditioner...  
ArwenEvenstar83: your "ahahaha..." sounded sarcastic. (take this of no offense, I _love_ your reviews)And I'm serious about the Jubjub thing. It's evil and mentally distorted... Anyone want a cookie?  
Fk306 animelover: The answer 2 thy question? It's because Caveman is an idiot and the ancestor people don't really care if someone dies, they only care about finding their secret "treasure" whatever it is. So even if Zero was dying of herpes, the ancestor ppl. Wouldn't care because they are already dead! Thanks for asking questions. It means you understood the chapter.  
Lilmizzrebel31: Can I ask you a question? Do you think I made Squid TOO stupid? I read a HELL of a lot of other holes fics, and most of them perceived Squid to be a sentimental hottie. You will gasp loudly when you read this, but I never understood why people thought he was cute. I was too busy drooling over one of the extras in the background of the movie.  
MAD4magik: You liked chapter 30 for real? I thought it wasn't written very well, so I changed it a bit. Your reviews are so nice! But are you even aware of your own writing talent? I can't really do this is my country, but I think you should publish a story on literal paper. Anyways, can't wait to "hear" from you.**


	29. A Gruesome End

**I am absolutely _sublime_ about the reviews! Sorry. I just had to use that word.**

**Here is the next chapter. And mind you, the ending might be a little of a surprise...****

* * *

**

**-**

**-----THE NEXT MORNING-----**

"G' morning people!" I sang, dancing ballet around and sprinkling "magical elf" fairy water from the pond into the campers' faces.

It felt better to walk around without the stuffy jumper. I was wearing shorts and a loose tee-shirt under it.

"What the hell is that smell?" asked Armpit, yawning.

"That's kind of scary coming from you." I said.

I was bent over the pond, washing my face with the soap that Dr. Pendanski had obviously left in the truck.

"No really... What is that smell?"

"Charlie puked all over himself."

Charlie's head popped out from behind the boulder with sleepy eyes.

"Go ahead. Tell everybody!" he grunted.

His orange-red hair was tangled and it stuck up in all directions.

"What happened to your jacket?" asked Caveman, chewing on a piece of onion.

"I told you," I said casually, putting on my orange jumper, "He chucked up all over himself. A lot, too."

Charlie ignored me and bent over his ruined jacket, almost in mourning.

"Oh you poor, poor Suede jacket. I knew you well."

"Well, you can't go rock climbing in an undershirt and boxers with pictures of Powerpuff Girls on them!"

He looked down at his attire and blushed.

"Oh... I forgot I was wearing that today."

He ran and hid behind the boulder.

Squid got up and started running around making _whish _sounds, singing the Powerpuff theme song.

-

It turned out Charlie had to cut a hole at the bottom of two sunflower seed bags and wear them like a double poncho.

When everyone finally gathered around, we took out the map and laid it out in front of us.

"See? There's one of the '**X**'es and there's the other one. Why are there two?" I pointed out.

"But I thought there was only _one_ treasure." said Zigzag. "Why are there two '**X**'es?"

"No... I learned how to count in the fourth grade. I can see two of them." Squid nodded.

_The fourth grade?._

"One of the '**X**'es is near the camp. See that?"

"And one of the treasures is over _here_!" exclaimed Magnet.

"Holy cheeses!" cried Charlie, "Look at the names at the bottom of the map!"

There was a note next to the listed names. It said;

_We here promise to keep the treshure only in our harts and never tell any one where it is. Frendship and revenge are more valuabel than munny._

_Signed,_

John Patterson

_Samuel Smith_

**Juan **

RiChArD R. RiChArD

**_Theodore Jackson II_**

_**Katherine Barlowe**_

-

"Whoa." we all said together.

"They were a gang." Zigzag said. "And..."

"...and those people..." continued Armpit.

"...they're our..."

"...ancestors."

"Whoa" we all said together again.

"Can you believe their **_spelling_**? It's hard to imagine Kissin' Kate used to be a school teacher." I said.

No one replied.

"Who's got a pen?" I asked.

"Oh I do!" Caveman said excitedly as he reached into his orange jumper pocket and pulled out a black pen.

Charlie snatched the pen from Caveman's hand.

"Cool! It has a picture of a naked lady on it!"

"WHERE?"

The boys crowded around Charlie, pushing each other to get a glimpse of the pen.

"Man! It's just a cartoon!"

They all groaned and gave Caveman disappointed looks.

"Now aren't you glad I slept by myself that night?" I said to... myself.

_God! You're not always right, you know._

-

I took the pen and wrote lightly on the map.

So did Squid.

And Armpit, and ZigZag, and Magnet, and X-Ray.

I looked proudly upon the map as Caveman protectively stuck the pen in his pocket.

There were six new names written on the parchment.

_We here promise...erm... ditto. Except for the revenge part._

_Signed,_

Rex Patterson

_Squid M. Smith_

**Jose Garcias**

RiCkiE R. RiChArD

Theo Jackson V

**_Linda, Lauren, Lydia, Lilly K. Barlowe (Take your pick)_**

**c**harles **w**alker IV

StanleY YelnatS IV

HEctoR ZeroNi

-

"I still think you should have put 'Pretty Boy' instead of 'Charlie'." said X-Ray in monotone.

Suddenly the ground began shaking. Just slightly, at first, and then people began toppling over because of the force. The quake was getting more and more agitating.

There was a cracking sound as the earth under Charlie split open in the blink of an eye.

He gasped as the ground beneath him gave way.

A monstrous hole opened right under Charlie's feet, pulling him into it.

"Pretty Boy!"

"Charlie!"

"Charles!"

"Walker!"

"Erm...You!"

The ground shook even more. Rocks tumbled. The earth rumbled with an agonizing cry of defeat beneath me.

_God's thumb is teaching us all a lesson._

I could have laughed at the irony of it... if Charlie hadn't died...

* * *

**_Yeah... You can read that last line again, I know I did, many times. I wasn't sure if I should have, though._**

**ArwenEvenstar83: I tried to make the character Charlie a bit of a looser. lols! I lurve making up characters. Thnx.**

**Perky.Pyromaniac: I've gotten a lot of reviews about Charlie so far. I know it's not as sentimental as all of he other stories out there, but I have to tell oyu something: I'm not good at sentimental parts. I'm like Chandler from _Friends._**

**Lilmizzrebel31:( Yes, I AM ashamed. I feel like a freak. But I can't really help it if I think Squid looks like a white gorilla... and CUTE gorilla... erm... of course... . **

**Fk306 animelover: I haven't thrown up since I was five, and I took medicine to MAKE me throw up... so... . ... He was chucking his guts because that's all he could do at the moment. You see, my dearest friend, Charlie is a looser. Loosers upchuck everythime they can't handle pressure. lols.**


	30. My Clemintine

**Okay. This is like... "HIDDEN; PART II" from here on.**

**Ok. Just a short note before I begin to do zetyping; I actually didn't like Charlie from the start, but he's my character, and I made him. Even though I DO make some of my characters fucking assholes, it's because the world is full of fucking assholes.**

**Shouldn't there be some in Camp Greenlake? ****I just got so tired of reading a lot of fanfics with sentimentals Squids and Macho Magnets, and Merry Mary-Sues.**

**So I created the opposite of sugar and spice, and everything nice.**

**And they turned out to be Charlie and Mouse.**

**-**

**Anyhoo. Here's the next chapterzio. Read slowly and enjoy.**

**DISCLAIMER: Everything retarded is mine.**

-

36

The earthquake subsided. Everyone sighed in relief and apprehension as they all got their bearings.

"Is everyone here?" asked Zero. He looked so shaken and so afraid you could knock him over with a feather.

"Charlie..." My own voice sounded distant and hollow.

The earthquake slash shaky-mountain thing slash (super)natural disaster had caused the ground to crack open from right under Charlie's feet and swallowed him whole. It was exactly five feet in diameter.

Just like the holes we used to dig.

I think someone is planning out our very actions as I speak.

I stared ahead at the gaping hole in the ground that had swallowed up the only person who liked my bra size.

Without hesitation, I braced and ran towards the hole.

For the first time, I felt like I knew what I was doing.

I charged towards the large, gaping, intimidating hole with as much speed as I possibly could.

And leaped.

"MOUSE, NO!" was the last thing I heard before I let myself fall into the hole, going deeper and deeper into the biting darkness.

_What were you thinking! You moron!_

"Shut up! For once in your fucking life, shut up!"

_Well, that won't be hard after you lead us to the pits of Hell._

_What happens when we hit the bottom of this hole, did you think of that?"_

"Relax."

_Fuck you, you bastard._

Then;

**SPLASH!**

I plummeted 35 meters into biting cold water.

Do you even know how frightening it is to land in cold water in the darkness? WATER, FOR GOD'S SAKES! I could have fucking drowned!

"Is anybody there!" echoed a voice from the darkness.

I blinked and tried to adjust to the empty void.

It didn't help. I still couldn't see a thing! I felt blind.

"IS ANYBODY THERE!" demanded the voice, more desperate this time.

"Ch-Charlie?" I couldn't believe it for a second.

"Charlie!"

"Hamster! Is that you?" he shouted.

"But LeMoNsOuR said you DIED!"

"She lied."

There was a pause.

"Do you think she'll seriously kill one of us off?"

"No. She loves me too much." Charlie grinned in the darkness.

Suddenly a bolt of lightning came from out of nowhere and struck Charlie's conceited ass.

"Okay, sorry. I take that back."

Charlie then learned his lesson not to defy the power of his author.

"Hey!" I said in realization, "The water is not as cold..."

"That's 'cause I peed."

"HOLY CRAP!"

"Sorry. But I don't see a bathroom around, do you?"

"HOLY CRAP!"

"Look. People swim in the ocean all the time. And trust me, it's saturated with more stuff than piss."

"HOLY CRAP!"

Suddenly, from the distance, there came a faint echo.

"Oh my God! Mouse! Walker! Are you alive?"

It was Caveman.

There was sobbing.

"Please be alive, you guys!"

That was Zero.

"Waaa! Waaa! God, Zero, you're such a baby!"

I think that was Squid.

"Be a man!" shouted X-Ray. But I could tell he was also agitated. His voice quivered.

"Yeah! Be a man!" repeated Squid.

"Mouse is **_gone_**, now. DEAD! So I'm gonna have to do all the planning! I'M THE LEADER!" X-Ray hollered.

"Yeah! He's the leader!" repeated Squid.

"You guys!" I screeched at the top of my lungs.

"Shit! Did you hear that? I think Mouse just spoke to me from her grave!" ZigZag whimpered.

"Mouse! I know you're upset about what happened to you! But please don't tell all your ghost friends to eat me!" Zigzag shouted into the hole.

I grew frustrated and tired as my legs and arms became numb, trying to float above the water.

"Mouse, where are you?" called Charlie. "It's s-so dark!"

"Man! Just go towards all the splashing!"

I splashed as much as I could and just moments later I heard Charlie's frightened breathing beside me.

"Hey, up there!" I screeched again, "Can you hear what I'm saying?"

"Oh my Gawd!" said the voice up in the surface, "there it is again! The voice of Mouse's ghost..."

_Wow... stupid, stupid, STUPID!_

I heard X-Ray groan.

"So I'm not gonna be the leader?"

"Guess not!" I shouted back.

"Hey! Is the water warm?" asked Squid.

"Who cares about that at a time like this?" scolded X-Ray.

"Just wondering."

"If I say the water is really nice, will you come down?" I asked nicely.

There was a long pause.

"Sure."

"But bring the map and the flashlight with you! And maybe some canteens!"

I paused to think.

"Ooh! And the first aid kit!"

There was another silence.

"On one condition!" said Squid, his voice echoing through the chasm walls.

"Anything!" I replied.

"You also let me bring the condom."

"Why would you go all the way down to the truck just to get a condom?"

"Well," his voice faltered, "I kind of got back and took it when you weren't looking."

_Well... I can't say I wasn't expecting that._

"Hey cool!" shouted Armpit. "I can still hear your thoughts from here!"

_Good for you, now jump in. _

I tilted my head into the direction of Charlie's breathing.

"I think we'd better find a wall around here and hang on to it. The guys are gonna be falling in here like hail."

We both swam in one direction and found a grimy, rocky surface.

"GERONIM---Oh, crap! My nail!"

There was a loud whistling like you hear in the cartoons as Armpit dropped like a cannon.

**SPLASH!**

I swear on my guinea pig's grave that he had created the biggest tidal wave ever created by man. (Besides Caveman)

"Woooo! That was fun!" I heard Armpit's voice from the echoing darkness.

"I hope you can swim, 'cause that's what we're going to be doing for a while."

Armpit groaned.

There were two more splashes as Zero and Magnet came down.

"I've got the first aid kit." said Zero.

There were three more loud splashes as ZigZag, Squid, and X-Ray jumped in.

"Okay, guys. I gots the flashlight, and some empty canteens." said Squid

"I have some canteens, too." said ZigZag.

"Ooh! I've got some onions in my pocket!"

"Wait...where's Caveman?"

There was a louder whistling sound than before as Caveman plummeted down like a huge Orca and he laded with a breathtaking **SPLASH!**

"Okay. Try to find each other's hands if that's possible. We have to stay together if we don't want to suffer a horrible death and die," Caveman said.

We all swam towards the sound of each other's voices.

After a lot of effort, we magically managed to create a demented circle by making a chain and holding each other's hands.

_Awkward... yeah._

"My muscles hurt. This is gonna be so bad for my natural skin texture," whined Caveman, "imagine how many mud packs it will take to fix this!"

"I've got an idea. Pass the empty canteens around until everyone gets one. We're gonna use them as floats."

"Squid, can you turn on the flashlight? Make sure you don't drop it, man!"

"It's kind of hard to turn on a flashlight while trying to keep your face above the water!"

Finally there was a yellow flicker of light, and the chasm was lit!

"Wow." We all gasped in awe.

If only you were there. You would have been bedazzled. (tee hee..."bedazzled")

Imagine a chasm, or a large tunnel. The walls were glistening with water.

There were stone structures hanging from the ceiling, like ice cream cones made of rock.

The tunnel seemed to travel endlessly.

And you'll never guess what was on the walls...

"Diamonds!" Zero squealed with childish awe.

The walls sparkled with tiny stars, making the place look even more enchanting.

"Keep swimming guys. We never know when this tunnel stops."

Squid was having difficulty swimming with a flashlight in his mouth.

"Remember the water line we form when we fill the canteens?" said X-Ray, swimming to catch up to Charlie and I at the front. "Well, that's the line we're going to make here."

He struggled to swim faster than I was and pushed himself in front of me.

"So that means _I'm_ the leader!"

Charlie grabbed the back of X-Ray's head and tugged it backwards with surprising strength.

"You're the leader when she _says_ you're the leader," he hissed.

I rolled my eyes and went ahead. The last thing I needed now was a retarded Body Guard.

"I wonder if God's Thumb was waiting for us... just waiting for the perfect moment to bring us all here." pondered Zero.

"Dude! Shero just chalked all by himshelf!" gawked Squid, his speech slurred with the flashlight in his mouth.

We swam further and further on. Eventually my side exploded with a agonizing pain. Like something was stabbing it from the inside.

I could tell some of the other guys were getting exhausted too.

We had to find sanctuary... and fast.

"Hey look!" Zero exclaimed, pointing to a small slab of rock a few meters ahead.

We all swam towards it and climbed up on it to rest.

"So... you like Powerpuff girls?" X-Ray said in a low voice, and then burst into hysterical laughter.

Charlie scowled, tired of the Powerpuff underwear joke, and crossed his arms.

His laughing echoed through the penetrating walls, which made it sound like a pack of hyenas.

"Hey! At least I'm not ashamed to buy a unique kind of boxers!" Charlie rebutted.

"I didn't even know they sold Powerpuff underwear for guys." said ZigZag.

X-Ray laughed again.

"I think the Powerpuff Girls are very...erm... manly." I said. Charlie scowled at me and I shrugged.

X-Ray doubled over and shrieked with laughter, which sounded like a pack of hyenas that lived in the chasm walls.

"You know what? Let's take out the map." Charlie said, trying to change the subject.

Magnet took out the map he had protectively kept under his bandana on his head.

"I hope it's not wet."

We unrolled it and tried to find where we were.

"Oh! I get it now! The squiggly line over here doesn't symbolize _rive_r..." I realized.

"It's the underground chasm that we're in... _that's_ what the squiggly line meant!"

"So we're on the right track?"

"Se how the squiggly line is forming a path? I think we're supposed to swim in that direction."

"Hey, what's that at the _end_ of the path? It's right next to the **X**" said Charlie.

"That's where the treasure is..."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Charlie, stop holding my hand." I said.

"I'm not."

"It's kind of clammy. Don't you use moisturizer?"

"I'm not holding your hand, lil' girl."

"Then who the fuck is..."

I looked to my right.

"HOLY SHIT!"

Everyone stopped swimming ahead and turned in my direction.

Charlie swam close to me, squinting at the greenish white object in my right hand.

"I don't see why you're making such a big deal."

"THERE'S A FUCKING SKELETON HOLDING MY HAND!"

"What's it going to do, eat you?"

"SKELETON!" I repeated.

He reached over and tugged at the severed, skeletized arm.

"One of the boney fingers was snagged to a loose string of your jumper," he explainedcalmly, waving the skeleton arm in my face.

"How can you even TOUCH it?" I asked, disgusted.

"What's that?" asked Zero, pointing to a finger of the severed bone-arm thing.

Charlie brought the rotting skeletized arm to his face.

"It's a ring..." he said in a low voice, "...an engagement ring."

"Gimme that." I snatched the arm away without a moment's consideration.

"Wow." I muttered.

"What? Lemme see!"

"This ring belongs to..." I looked up to them, "Me!"

"What do you mean the ring belongs to you?" X-Ray dememnded a bit jealously.

"See there,engraved on the inside of the ring...it says_"Barlowe"._

I smugly traced the outline of the ring as it set fixedly on the severed skeleton hand.

"The ring is mine."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----EXACTLY 100 YEARS, AGO-----

**Katherine sat, propped up at her wooden desk inside the schoolhouse, reading over Edgar Allan Poe's works of poetry.**

**She shifted into an uncomfortable position in her wooden chair.**

"**Damn these corsets." **

**_Swearing is very unlady-like._**

**"You're a brain. You don't need corsets."**

**_-lesigh- I hope your grandchildren aren't as much of a freak as you._**

**"I hope my grandchildren don't have to suffer from their own mind."**

**There was a gentle knocking at the door and she tipped her head upwards to see a man in a large hat.**

"**Good Morning, Miss. Kath-er-ine."**

**She smiled.**

"'**Morning, Sam."**

"**I came by to drop off a gift." He held up a small bag of onions. "Nature's magic vegetable."**

**Katherine broke away from his gaze.**

**She didn't want to be near him anymore.**

**She was afraid of his smile, his brown eyes that melted with devotion.**

**White, impressionable young women aren't supposed to fall in love with black men who have no future.**

**At least, that's what his mother had always said when she would see Katherine near Sam.**

**But he was her sanctuary in the most desperate times. The only person who listened.**

**Now she was afraid of him.**

"**Thank you, Sam." she managed to say without looking at his face, "you can leave the onions on that desk over there." She pointed to the furthest desk from her.**

**He stood there, alone, forcing his hurt feelings down his throat.**

"**I'm sorry, Miss. Katherine." he said quietly.**

**She looked up, finally allowing herself to fix her eyes on his. Her voice styed cold, even thoughher words were caring and soft.**

"**Sam, there's no need to be sorry. You did nothing wrong."**

**He stepped forward, and then back to his place.**

"**I kissed you, Miss. Katherine. Should you not feel shame at all?"**

"**Why should I be 'shamed?" Yet when she said this, she dodged his gaze again. "Sam, shame is what you feel when you've done or something terrible. And--"**

"**I know you are not blind... with all due respect."**

"**What---"**

"**I'm black, Miss. Katherine." He said in an obvious tone, holding out his chocolate-colored arm.**

**The hurt in his face made her stand up.**

"**God sees no race. Love doesn't either."**

_**Oopsies... did I say that?**_

**He stepped forward, with slight urgency, yet with apprehension.**

"**That's why I need to ask you a question."**

**She waited for him to continue.**

"**Are you happy here?"**

"**I'm sorry?" she asked, looking at him confusingly.**

"**Are you happy here...with the life you're living. Because I look at you and... and you're lying to yourself! You're lying to---"**

"**I think you are out of line, Onion Picker."**

**He backed away.**

"**I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean---" she stuttered.**

**He looked at her as if she hadn't said a word. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a tiny, silver object.**

"**Sam..." **

**He reached over and gently lifted her hand, slipping the ring upon her slender, delicate finger.**

"**I saved up as much as I could. It may not be a diamond, Miss. Katherine, but---"**

"**Sam, I can't marry you."**

**His eyes closed, and he released his gentle hold of her hand. It dropped limply by her side.**

"**I'm sorry," he said finally, then smiled. "I really didn't know what I was thinking. I guess I just had a hard week, is all."**

**He stepped back, took his hat off, and bowed his head.**

"**I'm sorry to have bothered you, Miss. Kath-er-ine," he smiled, saying her name with hurt in his voice.**

**He walked away, leaving Katherine standing in her own evolved darkness, clutching the ring to her chest, as if she were afraid it was going to drop and shatter.**

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**-----IN THE CAVERN-----**

I took the ring off of the skeleton finger and hesitantly slipped it onto mine.

"It's KATE Barlowe's ring. Not yours." said X-Ray, eyeing the silver ring greedily.

Charlie looked shocked out of his eye sockets, "This is getting scarier by the fucking minute!"

"Charlie Walker, don't swear!" I shouted with all the verbal dramatic passion I had.

The skeleton arm slipped from my fingers and plopped into the water.

"FUCK!"

"I'll get it." Charlie said, sliding into the water.

Seconds later, his head resurfaced.

He was smiling.

When Charlie smiled for no reason, it usually means the apocalypse is coming soon...

"I found the arm." he said. But there was a mischievious glimmer in his eyes.

His smile grew bigger.

"Look what else I found."

He held up a skull. My great grandmother's skull.

The skullstared menacingly, grinning at me, jeering at me.

I screamed.The sound echoed deafeningly throughout the walls of the entrapping chasm.

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**Perky.Pyromaniac: You always give nice reviews. And--- HOLY CRAP! You like my version of Squid? The stupid, clumsy, dopey Squid? Lols. When r u updating your story? I'm in lurve with it.**

**Lilmizzrebel31: Charlie wrote a letter saying he dislikes your choice of words... So I bonked him in the head with a frying pan. And your Peter Pan story... –sigh-. I still have the fuzzies from it. Wendy's dying! Oh, you cruel, cruel author!**

**Nosilla: The pure insanity comes from the little I have left of my diminishing brainpower...**

**And the colorful penguins that jump around in my room, including my possessed JubJub that tries to kill me in my sleep.**

**Yes. Pure insanity.**

**Fk306 animelover: What does '306' stand for in your name? Why do birds fly and we don't? Why do humans rapidly evolve, but animals stay stupid and eat their own shitt? Is Michael Jackson really a man?**

**Answering all these questions correctly will result in 30,000,000 dollars worth of spatulas.**

**Yes, I've already gotten the idea that I am insane. Thanks for your review.**

**ArwenEvenstar83: YOU DON'T LIKE CHARLE! OH... MY... GOD(ZILLA)!**

**I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DON'T LIKE CHARLIE? DID YOU EVEN READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE ABOVE THIS CHAPTER? Lols., Just kidding. It turned out no one really liked him, yet I was nice enough to let him live.**

**MAD4magik: I don't know why, but I look forward to your reviews the most. They're so long and enjoyable to read. I like long reviews. That's why I write them. XDD . (The extra 'D' in my smiley is a beard.) –nod-**

**And yes, I think you should seriously write a story for everyone to see. Start with maybe a one-page story, so you can finish it, then progressing towards longer ones. That way it's easier to finish them.**


	31. Destruction

37

"Fuck you, man!" said Armpit, struggling to stay afloat on the water. "That fucking skull scared the fuck outta me!"

"Don't swear..." said Caveman timidly, "It's vulgar."

"It's just a skull, people!" Charlie said, half laughing.

"Yeah, but its my great grandmother's skull! Put it back!" I screamed.

He dropped the grinning sphere of doom and it returned to the water with a lonely _plop_.

"_How did she get here, anyways_?" asked ZigZag, looking at the skull with all the acute paranoia he had in that frizzy head of his.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**-----100 YEARS AGO-----**

"**What do we do with her?" Linda Walker asked, squinting at her husband in the hot sun.**

"**Nothing, we leave her here." Trout Walker replied in a rough voice.**

"**But we killed her." she said shakily.**

**He glared at her and slapped her in the face. Linda yelped in surprise and staggered back.**

"**WE AIN'T DONE NOTHIN'! SHE KILLED HERSELF, YA HEAR?"**

**She sobbed and backed away, her eyes were hysterically afraid.**

"**The monster lizard came out of nowhere!" he wiped the excess spittle from his mouth. "It bit her, poisoned her, killed her... Not us."**

**They looked down at the body of Katherine Barlowe. She lay sprawled upon the cracked, desert ground, looking up at them with open, glassy eyes.**

**Her cheeks were crisp with tears. Tears of joy?**

**She was smiling.**

**_She wanted to die... _Linda Walker said to herself, shaking her head in denial _She died laughing. She wanted to die._**

"**Well, we have to put her SOMEWHERE. The mayor told us all he changed his mind and wanted her alive!". She panicked.**

**Trout paced back and forth, chewing at his dirt-infested nails.**

**He spotted a cliff just a half hour away**

"**Follow me."**

**Trout walker picked up the dead outlaw's body and carried her away with Linda dragging behind like a nervous rat.**

**The walked, tired and bleeding towards the giant cliff. There was a round rock formation at the top, almost like a fist.**

**When they arrived, staring guiltily up at the top of the cliff, Trout spotted a small hole, almost like a badger hole, at the side of the cliff.**

**He carried the body towards the hole, slowly sliding it through. It fitted perfectly, just like a coffin nature had provided.**

**Kate's body disappeared into the darkness of the tiny cave. As soon as Trout got rid of the body, he heard it drop down, down, into the rocks below.**

**He thought he heard a splash.**

"**Did you hear that?" he asked his wife, "I thought I heard water..."**

"**I didn't hear anything." Linda shrugged, but she thought she heard water too.**

**They stood up, dusted themselves, and walked away.**

"**We need that loot" Linda said, "She's robbed all the banks from Hell to Houston, the money must be worth _something_."**

**Trout kicked at the cracked dirt.**

"**We'll find it." he growled, "Even if it takes 100 years. We'll find it." **

**-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

Suddenly there came a loud rumble. Tiny rocks and pebbles began to drop from the dark ceiling of the cave and drip like hail onto the water... and onto our heads.

The rumbling became louder. It was just like the earthquake that swallowed Charlie whole just a few hours away.

"WHAT'S HAPPENING?"

"I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die!" X-Ray's glasses fogged, as hot, infantile tears swelled out of his eyes.

"Shut up! We're not going to die!" Charlie yelled in a Hannah Barbera Superhero way as he grabbed the map and tried his best to keep it dry from the quaking, splashing waters.

Zero's already haunted face became even more grim as his large, darting eyes absorbed the rocks of falling doom.

"Look out!"

Armpit pushed me out of the way, swimming at the water as hard as he could. Just a split second later a large rock plummeted from the walls above and crashed in the place where I had previously been.

Armpit's eyes glazed and looked as far away as they did that day he went mad. That day he called me _Maggie_.

"I won't ever let anything happen to you, Maggie. Ever!" He exclaimed with such determined promise I almost forgot I was in a faltering cave with madness all around me.

_The only reason why he even talks to you is that you are someone else to him._

My mind unfocused and went down a spiraling tunnel. And the feeling of worthlessness dared to creep into my thoughts once again.

"Meh." I said.

"MOUSE!"

My dazed thoughts were snapped back to dreaded reality as I heard Charlie calling my name over and over again.

Squid had lost the flashlight and things were again dark.

I heard screaming, gurgling, sobbing, desperate splashes, and even praying.

But I could _see_... nothing. Dark, it was pitch black.

"Please..." I heard Charlie silently beg, "MOUSE, WHERE ARE YOU?" He sounded on the verge of tears.

"Shut up, you damn worryass! I'm still alive!"

Though I worried about Squid.

The flashlight was gone. Which meant Squid must have been. too.

And... the map! Oh God, the map!

I searched hopelessly in the darkness, and I began sobbing. Sweat poured profusely out of my pores and mixed with the water.

The rumbling was even louder, and the rocks that tumbled just kept getting bigger and bigger. The earth shook, which made the water create tsunamis that choked me.

No longer could I hear Charlie's frantic cries.

"Charlie!" I sobbed, my hair sticking to my forehead, my neck.

"CHARLIE!"

I heard Magnet's voice. He was praying. No, not in Spanish, but in English.

-

I asked him one night why he refused to pray in his language.

"I used to always do it in Spanish. It was easier... but God never answered them." He shrugged. "I thought, '_maybe God speaks English'_, so that's the only language I speak when I talk to him..."

Then he turned to me. "I still hope..." he said, then smiled his cheerful smile, and turned away.

Now he was drowning, along with eight other drowning, suffocating people.

"Our papi who art in heaven, hollow being thy name... thy kingdom is coming, thy will be donning, On the Earth as is it in hayven..." I heard his idiotic voice over the falling rubble and the screaming.

Moving...

The water was moving!

Like a raging stream, it pushed us along the chasm walls, leading us to who- knows- where.

I tried my best to stay afloat, choking helplessly on the rushing water.

Something slid into my hand, as if some magical force had intended it.

_The flashlight!_

"Damn you, ancestors! Where are you!" I sobbed.

Just as I said that, a strong, familiar gust of wind swept down, down, and literally lifted me out of the water.

I heard surprised yelps in the darkness as some of the boys were rescued from the merciless water.

My tired, exhausted eyes faltered, and finally closed. My lips automatically curled into a slight, grateful smile. _They_ had finally come.

"So there you are..." I muttered in a weak whisper.

Then, (you probably know what's going to happen next:)

I fainted.

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"Hamster?"

My left eye twitched.

"Yo, Squirrel, wake up..." there was a pause. "Please wake up."

The surface I was lying on was hard, and cold.

I wasn't in water anymore.

Two hands shook my shoulders.

"If you don't wake up I'm going to vomit again."

My eyes snapped open and I sat up immediately.

I felt dizzy, and groaned.

"Hey, Rat, you're awake!"

For once, I was relieved so see Charlie.

His face was pale, and exhausted. His green eyes were now black in the dim light. And his orange-red hair was matted in tangled curls on his face.

"I found the flashlight in your hand. It still works. How it got from Squid to you I'll never know."

My head scanned around. Carelessly, the "Ancestors" had dropped us to the nearest solid surface.

It was the END of the tunnel! I could spot the water a distance away... like a beach.

Suddenly all memory whished into my brain.

"Squid!" I felt myself shout.

I don't know what it was. I just had a bad feeling about him. A REALLY BAD feeling.

"I'm not Squid," said Charlie in a hurt voice, "I'm Pretty Boy."

I looked around.

Zigzag was muttering something. He was biting his nails so hard on of is fingers began to bleed. He looked at it temptingly and sucked the blood like a fucking vampire.

Caveman was next to a wall of the chasm, patting Zero's trembling head and telling him not to be afraid.

X-Ray sat on his ass secluded from everyone and crying like a damn baby, complaining that it wasn't his idea to try to escape.

Armpit was studying the map, in which the ink was smeared, just a little, by the water.

Magnet...

Magnet wasn't there.

I panicked.

_Our papi, who art in heaven, hollow being thy name..._

"Magnet!" I cried "MAGNET!"

There was a high-pitched sob in the distance.

"Magnet!" I shouted again.

I got up, whether dizzy or not, and ran towards the tiny sobbing. I saw a slightly large pile of rocks and looked behind it.

There he was.

Magnet sat with his legs curled under him. His orange jumper sagged with the weight of the water. And his face was red with tears.

"I'm so sorry, amigo."

He was sitting beside Squid, who lay limp on the hard ground.

I knew something had happened to him! I knew it!

I clenched my teeth in frustration because I couldn't do anything about it.

Angrily, I looked upon Squid's emotionless, paled face.

"Fuck!"

"I found him in the water. I dragged him out... but..."

He looked up at me.

"His skin is so cold, Mouse."

Charlie calmly sat on the ground in front of Squid.

For a long while he did nothing.

"Mouse, do the CPR."

"WHAT! _You_ do it! In case he tries to rape you, you're strong enough to knock him out again."

"What _is_ it with you and raping? None of us are gonna rape you, you know."

"Sorry for being _prepared_ for anything..." I said, offended.

"LOOK AT US! We're in a fucking underground..._thing! _None of us could have been "_prepared_"."

"Eh... guys..." said Magnet's small voice in the background. "Remember me? I am the boy who is sitting over a dead body."

I rolled my eyes.

"He's not dead." I said incredulously.

I bent over and picked up Squid's wrist.

My face drained of blood.

"Shit... I think... he _is_ dead."

Charlie literally grabbed Squid's wilted wrist from me.

"Well... maybe his heart is... um... resting." he said.

I gulped, "I think he's dead, Magnet."

If I had torn Magnet's lungs out, that's what his face would have looked like then.

"No!" he shrilled, "We are a gang! Just like you said, Mouse! People in gangs do not die _alone_!"

"Magnet---"

"THEY DO NOT DIE ALONE!"

All of a sudden, there was a coughing sound.

Squid's head jerked and he rolled over onto his stomach, spewing water all over the already-moist ground.

He hacked and spewed more water out of his throat.

"Hey hey! You're back!" Charlie said, as if Squid had come back from a difficult experience in the bathroom.

"Maybe you felt his wrist wrong." Charlie said.

"Maybe _you_ felt his wrist wrong." I flared.

Squid glared at him, then doubled over in pain.

Magnet blew up and began sobbing like a madman.

Charlie slapped his face. "Shut up, you! Pick yourself up. You're embarassing me in front of my soldiers!"

I sighed.

Even in the face of death, the boys of D-Tent think it's all a game.

Armpit's voice came up from the distance.

"Hey you guys, look!"

We ran towards where he was, with Squid staggering behind pathetically.

Armpit was standing with the map in his hands.

"Remember the symbol of the square you found on the map?" he asked.

I nodded, catching my breath.

"Well I think I know what it stands for..." he said in a haunted tone.

His arm lifted and he pointed up, up, up high.

On the cave wall, there was a ledge, as I could faintly see in the dim light.

And on that ledge was a tiny, wooden...

shack.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

**Okay... when I meant I was going to update in two weeks...**

**I meant two months.**

**I've decided not to become a social outcast and join retarded things such as talent shows and feeding the class really fat, fat hamster.**

**I thank:**

**MAD4MAGIK: your reviews were my fuel of the month and they kept me going. Thankzies.**

**ARWENEVENSTAR: I hope this diminishes confusion:**

**Charlie found a floating severed arm in the dark, dark water and it turned out to be Kate Barlowe's arm. This means that Kate Barlowe didn't really die like Louis Sachar had written in the book. (remember, this is only my version of Holes). Charlie found a ring on the skeleton arm and it said "Barlowe" on it. Since this is also Lydia Barlowe's last name, she decided to stake claim on the ring. Charlie had nothing to do with it.**

**Please review coz u usually give suggestions, and sometimes even ideas without you even being aware. (Dun, DUN DUNNN)**

**LILMIZZREBEL31: Cruel authors always end up with lots of money and a golden retriever named "Sparky" in the back shed.**

**Gimme five coz cruel writers rule the world... :**

**FK306 ANIMELOVER: You answered the questions I have been asking for years in only two days.**

**Please can I borrow your brain? I'll give it back! I promise!**

**(sorry, getting scary again...)**

**NOSILLA: of course penguins are shiny! They use special brushes to make their black feathers soft and gay. (happy, please, not homo)**


	32. Greed

**Please read the previous chapter if you don't know what the hell a shack has to do with anything.**

38

"A SHACK?"

Come on... a shack!

"LeMoNsOuR, you could do better than a shack! Why not a magical dragon land, for God's sakes! NOT A SHACK!"

Charlie was busy looking around the crevices of the walls to figure out how to get up there to the ledge where the shack oddly perched upon.

"We'll start here," said Charlie, pointing to a pile of rocks on the wall.

X-Ray looked frustrated.

"Why doesn't anyone listed to what _I_ say?" he whined.

"I'm not going up there." I shook my head, "Non!"

"But the map says that's where the **X** is!"

"I have a very bad feeling bout that ledge up there!"

"Come on! You have to get up there! We didn't go all this way for nothing!" Charlie complained.

"ButIIdon'twanto!"

Charlie sighed, and climbed up a few feet of the wall by putting his feet through each crevice.

"See?" he said, "If I can do it, so can you."

Grumbling, the rest of us attempted to climb up the wall with the happy-go-lucky not far ahead.

I don't know whether it was hours, or _years _when we all finally reached the top.

I pushed myself up on the ledge and helped others up who were behind me.

Caveman, as usual, was the last one up.

"My poor, poor nails," sobbed Magnet.

I dusted myself off and looked upon the tiny wooden structure.

It was poorly built, as if the person who made it, built it out of driftwood. But the wood had grayed and become brittle through time.

Rusted nails stuck out haggardly fro, each corner. The door was just a slab of wood. It looked like the hood of a horse wagon.

There was one tiny window, that was abnormally shaped and poorly built.

And the roof had a large, gaping hole on the left side.

The shack was just about as big as a small kitchen.

"Why would someone build a shack in a place like this?"

"Yeah, and where would they find the wood?"

The "doorknob" was just a small hole at the side of the wooden slab.

I put two finders through it and opened the door with a husky creak.

"Wow!"

Inside there was barely space for a small block of wood, which must have been used as a table. There was some sort of cloak set on the ground, which sadly must have been used to sleep on through lonely nights in a secluded underground chasm.

What caught our attention the most, was a small, cloth bag at the center of the room.

I went over and picked it up with both hands.

On the side, there was an inscription, like a company logo. There was a picture of a smiling donkey and under it was the words,

_Sam's Onions, nature's magic vegetable._

My fingers became numb and they dropped the sack as it bounced lightly on the ground.

Out of the sack, spilled three onions (or what was left of the roots & rotted skin)

And a brass case.

"What ya got there, Mousey?" asked Squid.

I picked up the box, which was only the size of my hand, and opened it slowly.

There were ten gold coins and a white piece of cloth. There was writing on it.

I guess they couldn't use paper, could they?... .

I peered closer at the white cloth, whilst the boys had eyes only for the ten gold coins.

"I'm the one who gets two coins 'cause I'm the poorest," said X-Ray.

It wasn't ink that was used to write on the cloth. No... it was blood!

Whoever wrote this must have gone mad at the time.

_You will never find it._

_Your children and your children's children will keep on looking but you will never find it._

_It belongs to Maggie._

_-K.B._

Kate Barlowe!

I gasped.

She lived! She somehow managed to live here!

But how!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Pain.**

**Her eyes fluttered open, only to be greeted by the "drip drip" of water and a mossy smell.**

_**Where am I?**_

**She opened her eyes, and found herself inside a gigantic cave. The ground beneath her was hard and cold, and not too far away she could spot lapping water.**

_**Oh my God!**_

**She finally remembered.**

**_I had been bitten in the ankle by a yellow-spotted lizard... and..._**

**Hesitantly, she checked her ankle and found it was purple and had grown in size.**

"**WHY AREN'T I DEAD, SAM?" she cried with anguish. "WHY DIDN'T YOU LET ME DIE?"**

**She was answered be the sound of her own echoes.**

**She spotted a few slabs of wood, and picked them up.**

**For hours Barlowe went around, scavenging for pieces of wood.**

**She looked around for a good building place, where the tide wouldn't get to it.**

**I must keep on living even if I want to die**

That was enough to get the attention of one person... Zero.

"Maggie..." he said in barely a whisper.

I turned my head slowly to look at his permanently haunted face.

"Maggie is my mother's name" he said hollowly.

"Maggie was supposed to be _my_ name." I said in a snobby tone.

He turned to look up at me, despite his size.

"Do you think..." he paused and swallowed, "...do you think whatever she's talking about belongs to my mother?"

I didn't know what to say. His mind was clouded, polluted by memories that gave him irrational ideas.

"Little man, I don't see how your mother could have something to do with this..." I began to explain.

"But maybe if it _was_ my mother I'd be able to find her!"

"Zero, I-I I don't think so."

Squid's voice came up behind me.

"Whatever Kate Barlowe hid belongs to me. I had a... erm... _friend_ called Maggie."

Magnet's eyes strayed away from the gold coins and noticed the commotion.

"No! Maggie was my bestest amigo! He was a magical mouse! He could sing, too! Kate Barlowe's treasoor belongs to me!"

Other boys began to notice, and they, too had their own version of "Maggie".

And it was making me sick!

"STOP ARGUING!" I shouted, and everyone became silent.

I felt like Hitler.

"For some freaky Twilight Zone reason, we all knew Maggie's who disappeared at about the same time, right?"

I turned to Armpit. His eyes were distant again.

"Hey," I snapped my fingers in front of his face, "Do you remember what year your sister died? Or what month?"

"April 12th, nineteen ninety-nine." he said, as if the date was stamped onto his brain.

"My papi set a mouse trap for my pet Maggie, and she died in the April, but a different year." said Magnet sadly.

"My mother sold my stuffed animal in an April." said Squid, "I remember because it was the same month my mother dropped me off to live with my grandma."

"My mother left me stranded in a park on an April." said Zero.

"April, April, **April 12th**,"

That's all I fucking heard until I never wanted to hear that word again!

I scratched my head.

"My birthday is on the 12th of April..." I said. "And I also met my father on april 12th..."

"What a second," said Charlie, "I never thought you had adoptive parents."

I had a bad feeling then.

They all died on that _same date_, but in different years.

"Does anyone know what the date is today?" I asked, panicked.

No one spoke.

"Oh, I do!" exclaimed ZigZag, "I'm really good at counting days."

Well, of course he did... Annoyingly he was the only one who knew when his birthday was last time.

"It's the 12th of April, 2006!" he said proudly.

_Oh shit._

Suddenly there was a loud rumbling again, and the ground began to quake.

"I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die!" screamed X-Ray again.

I grabbed the brass box with everything in it. The boys had greedily taken one coin each, leaving one in there for me.

"Everybody jump!" cried Charlie.

We all leaped off of the cliff, landing in the water.

Well, except for me.

Time seemed to have gotten stuck. Everything went in slow motion as rocks tumbled from the skies.

I heard the most sickening crack as my head slowly tilted upwards as I saw a large piece of rock detach from the ceiling. Then it pummeled towards me anbd time went very, very, VERY fast.

It crashed upon my head and knocked me off of the cliff. I felt myself falling, falling forever in the air. I tried to move my arms and legs, but they had become limp. I began to loose focus, and I no longer felt the sweat on my neck, the bruise on my forehead, the scars on my legs... I was in a very bad state of euphoria.

The last thing I heard before I fell into a dark plain of the abyss was Charlie screaming his head off.

_Damn it feels good to be loved_

Umm

Then I died.


	33. Who am I?

**HOORAHHOORAH! I'm back! I'm back, everyone! I'M BACK!**

**(crickets)**

**Fine! Be that way!**

**Just an important note to y'all: You have to know the whole story to uderstand this chapter, which is like the most important one of them all. And you also have to have read Chapter 12.**

--------------

If you don't know the story and haven't read chapter 11 & 12, you are very well likely not to understand this chapter.

"Lydia…"

_So… tired…_

"Wake up, Lydia. You're not dead."

_I'm not?_

"No… in fact, you're very much alive."

_I am?_

"Yup… and right now, you need to get up. They need you, Lydia. Your friends need you."

_No they don't. They hate me. They think I am a waste of time._

"Does Charlie think you're a waste of time?"

…

"What about Theodore… does he think you're a waste of time?"

My eyes stung, but they were the only parts of my anatomy that I could feel. The rest of me was numb, just an insentient void of nothingness that I could only pretend to exist.

_Who are you?_

"Knock knock…"

_Umm… who's there?_

"Maggie."

_Maggie who?_

"Maggie your guardian angel, of course! Ha ha!"

_Uhh…_

"Silly girl…"

_Where **am** I?_

"Where do you think? You're _nowhere…_it's where people go to talk to their guardian angel about their tasteless lives before they die."

_I'm going to die?_

"Now that's your choice, isn't it?"

_Can I ask you a question?_

"That's why you're here."

_What's with the Maggie shit?_

"What do you mean?"

_Why does everyone who has to do with me have to do with Maggie?_

"Don't you know, child?"

_I don't think I do…_

"Well you should… it's a foreshadowing of someone's death… a very important person's death…"

_Who's?_

"You know very well… you know… you know…"

_No… I don't._

"It's so sad… so sad…"

_ANSWER ME!_

"One has to die so that others may live. You, of all people should know this, Lydia.

Remember your parents?"

_WHAT THE HELL? YOU'RE NOT ANSWERING MY QUESTION!_

"Remember your parents, Lydia? Remember the rain? Remember how it was so dark that night your father couldn't see where he was driving?"

_WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME THIS? _

The numbness went away from my chest as it began heating up with anger, with guilt, regret.

"Remember how the car swerved off the road and how it felt as though the car was flying? Remember that? And how your mother thrust herself to the back of the seat just seconds before the car smashed down at the bottom of the cliff?"

I had nothing to say anymore... Why was she saying this…

"And remember how your mother pushed your tiny body out the open window? How you fell out and landed on the sharp rocks while the car crashed into a million…zillion little pieces."

"She died, Lydia. She made sure you lived."

_Why?_

"…Sometimes one has to die so that others may live."

I was crying. Aww dammit, I was crying. My throat squeaked like a rusty tire and my chest felt like someone had thrown gasoline inside it and set me on fire.

_I know who you're talking about… It's him isn't it?_

"Lydia, I—"

_IT'S HIM, ISN'T IT? ALL THIS SHIT ABOUT MAGGIE AND ALL THIS FUCKING CRAP IS FOR ME TO SAY MY LAST GOODBYES! HE'S GOING, AND I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO TELL HIM HOW I FELT!_

"So you DO know… you knew all this time, didn't you?"

My tears stopped flowing and my chest became cold.

_Of course I knew… I think I knew from the moment he looked at me. It couldn't have been a coincidence that Armpit's sister was Asian, and I was Asian. It can't just be a coincidence that she "died" at the time of my birthday…. _

"What are you going to do?"

_Tell him I love him… Tell him… Maggie still loves him._

Maggie laughed with delight. "You see now, don't you? My dear, dear child… **YOU are Maggie**!"

I felt myself smile…

Yes… yes, **_I _**am Maggie.

I am Maggie Jackson.

There was a thrashing of lightning upon my stinging eyes as I remembered my past…

* * *

**chapter 12**

**BANG!**

**The bullet bounced quickly, back and fourth from one side of the alley wall to the other.**

**It dodged from left to right…right to left…like lightning… heading towards…**

"**Maggie! No!"**

**Suddenly the very still Maggie jolts, like she was struck by the lightning.**

**Theodore freezes.**

**She looks up at him slowly with such a strange sadness and then closes her large, mouse-like eyes.**

**Maggie crumbles onto the ground.**

"**Maggie!"**

**From the background: **

"**Oh my God." The woman said again and again.**

"**You killed her." **

"**Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God..."**

**Theodore didn't hear any of it.**

**The only thing he heard was his loud breathing and the loud heartbeat of the dying little creature soaking his new shirt with thick, crimson blood.**

"**Maggie, I'm gonna go getsome people to coem and help you," Theodore said, trying to blink away the fogginess that was clouding his mind.**

**"After that, we can get some ice-cream, okay?"**

**Maggie's once dark, Asian eyes were still closed.**

**She whispers one word:**

"**Mouse."**

**Her head plops to one side.**

**Theodore cried, holding her tiny head close to his chest and rocking her limp body back and forth like he had when he first met her laying on his front porch.**

**But Maggie. Maggie could no longer hear him.**

**-**

"**CALL THE POLICE, DAMMIT!" Theodore screamed to the woman with the gun behind him.**

**The woman scurried away into her home, leaving Theodore and Maggie alone in the dark, sinister alley.**

"**Oh, Maggie. Maggie why didn't you run when I told you to?" He sobbed into her blood-stained dress.**

**Thirty minutes passed and the police hadn't come. Did the woman cower away, afraid she's get arrested, tried, executed? Had she even bothered to call the police before she fled?**

"**I'll be right back, okay, Maggie?" Theodore whispered into one of her tiny, frozen ears.**

**It began to rain.**

**Theodore ran and ran and ran and ran to the nearest payphone and his fingers trembled as he pressed the three numbers, 911…**

**-**

**Meanwhile, back in a dark, dark alley, a little girl's eyes opened very slowly. The rain poured down onto her crimson-smudged face, making it impossible to see.**

**Why did her chest hurt so? And why was there… Oh God, why was there so much blood?**

**_Where am I? _she asked, getting up. It felt like something had punched her in the lungs and she collapsed back onto the soaked ground before she even got to her knees.**

**Maggie began crying. It hurt like thousands of rats burrowing into her chest as it sputtered with blood.**

**She heard footsteps behind her. It was a man. He had the most honest face she'd ever seen and the reddest hair, too.**

**As red as a tomato.**

**The man walked up and kneeled beside her dying body. He lifted her head with the gentlest of hands and laid it on his soaked lap.**

"**What happened here?" he asked. Maggie felt two fingers at the side of her neck as the man was checking for a pulse.**

**Still alive… barely.**

**The red-headed man took out a mobile phone from his rain-stained pocket and dialed for the ambulance.**

_**We'll be right there, sir. Try to keep her conscious.**_

**The man put the phone back into his pocket. He looked with worry at this stranger girl whose cries he's heard whilst on his way to walking back home after a hard-say's work.**

"**Can you hear me, li'l girl? Tell me your name."**

**Maggie's eyes opened. "I—I don't know."**

"**Do you know your address? Your mommy's name? Your age?" he asked.**

"**I--- I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know!"**

"**What happened to you?" the man asked with pity in his voice.**

**She shook her head violently, as if trying to keep away vicious demons from her mind. "I don't remember."**

…_**Try to keep her conscious…**_

"**My name's Mr. Barlow, what's yours?"**

**Maggie knew. She knew her name! … but…**

**She'd forgotten.**

**Suddenly a bright red sign caught the corner of her eye. It hung lopsidedly on the brick alleyway walls. **

_**Lydia's Pawn Shop**_

"**My name is Lydia." She said. "I think."**

**The man faked a smile, and brushed the girl's drenched hair aside. Sirens could be heard in the background.**

"**Well, Lydia. Everything's going to be okay…"**

"**Fuck!"**

**The phone was dead, broken, screwed up.**

**Theodore was scared. This was the sacredest he'd been his entire life and he knew nothing could make him feel any different.**

**Theodore made a choice, and it was to go back and get Maggie. He would pick her up, and carry her lifeless body home to a family who still thinks she'd be coming back with an ice-cream sundae in her hand.**

**He ran, faster and faster. The sound of an ambulance van whizzed past him as he ran towards the alley where Maggie was.**

"**MAGGIE!"**

**She was gone.**

**Gone.**

**Dead and gone.**

**Theodore felt himself slump to the ground out of exhaustion and his world, his life, his love went black.**

* * *

_I had been dropped onto a doorstep by a woman who didn't care, and taken in by a black family who did care. Then fate changed his mind…_

_The judge banged his mallet. _

"_Since the girl's true family cannot be found ,we leave her custody in your hands, Mr. Barlow…. Take good care of her."_

_No one really knew who my real family was. I'd been an orphan even before I thought I was._

_Now it's too late, and Armpit's going to die._

"You can stop this," Maggie, the guardian angel said to me.

_How?_

"Well first of all you can wake up and get off your ass."

_Then what?_

Maggie smiled sunshine rays into my eyes,

"That's up for you to decide."

* * *

**POLL: Just a question to you reader peoples out there.**

**Was I better off as LeMoNsOuR or is Chagrin Rose a nicer penname thing?**

**Oh... and if you could have a superpower, what would it be?**


	34. Mr Fate

**Yes, this is an all-new shaptar! Not an edit of a previous one. I'm truly sorry for all of you who have stopped waiting for me to make this chapter, but time has been going really fast for me this year and it's hard to catch up. **

**Well here it is! Something even I have been waiting for; Shaptar firty seven!!! –woot- **

**All of you, enjoy! **

**Sencerely, LeMoNsOuR **

**

* * *

**

My eyes wouldn't dare open, for the fear of finding a stalagmite pierced through my skull.

I felt very light fingertips at my cheek, then the entire palm at the side of my face. Just this little feeling against my skin brought a sort of comfort, letting me know that I was still alive.

_Oh, god. Please let me be alive. _

I put my own hands on top of the one stroking my cheek and told myself to open my eyes.

Hmm... Maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

"Charlie, stop touching my face."

"I will if you let go of my hand."

Embarrassed, I lifted my hand and scratched my brow.

"Dude. We thought you' died or something." Squid said, looking down at me. What a site to see seven boys peering down at my face while I couldn't even move my toes.

"Where's Armpit." I suddenly heard myself say.

"I'm right here, Maggie—I mean Mouse." Armpit helped me sit up, then widened his eyes.

"Holy shit! You've got this huge-ass bump on your head!"

"EEP! DON'T LOOK AT ME!" I covered my face and turned away.

"Hey, you're lucky enough to still be alive." Caveman said, unable to help staring at my forehead. "Good thing Pretty Boy here tried his best to break your fall." He slapped Charlie's back a couple of times.

"What did he do? Use his body as a pincushion?" I asked sarcastically.

"Actually, yes." Caveman said.

_I feel bad. : ( _

"Are you sure you're alright, Magg—I mean Mouse?" Armpit asked.

"Dude, stop calling her Maggie." Squid said.

"No, no." I interrupted. "I _am_ Maggie. My name's Maggie."

"W-what?"

I then spent the next hour telling them the story of what had happened that day in Manhattan.

Armpit's eyes became dull, like coals and they did not leave the sight of my face.

Everyone else just stared in awe and confusion.

"This shit's scary." Zero said. Surprised by the first swearword Zero had ever said, the boys all jumped up and tackled him to the ground.  
Boys, of course, will be boys.

Armpit, though, didn't move.

"Maggie," he said in a small, distant voice, "My Maggie."

For what seemed like a long long long nine seconds, we just stared at each other, as if trying to find some familiarity within each other's faces.

This boy sitting in front of me with serious body odor problems, this black boy sitting in front of a red-headed Asian girl, was her brother.

It really didn't turn out to be a Hollywood-film reunion, in which we hug and say sentimental things like, "My life seems so complete now!"

He just got up, stuck out his hand for me to take, and helped me stand.

"I think I owe you an ice cream sundae," he said, and then jumped on the dogpile, crushing poor Zero underneath.

-----------------------------------------------

Beneath the shack up high, Charlie had found a path that someone had seemed to have made for anyone who might have stumbled into the cavern. There were even little arrows carved into the stone to give us "directions".

The huge popsicle bump on my head began to throb, and even though I looked incredible stupid, it really really hurt. Every once in a while, my vision ould get hazy and I would lean against the wall to get my bearings until I could see again.

Each time this happened Charlie would try to hold me up, and each time I would push him away rudely.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Charlie finally asked me, while the boys were far ahead, picking up any diamonds that were loose enough to be taken out.

"Don't take it seriously. I just don't like people touching me is all."

"Why?"

"I don't know why. Do you know why? Because seriously, it would be nice if you stopped asking the fucking annoying questions and get out of my face." I tried to walk ahead of him but my vision suddenly blurred again and I tripped on a stone on the floor, falling.

I expected Charlie to rush forward and hover like a worried mother, asking if I was alright, but he stayed where he was.

He suddenly began to speak in this tone I'd never heard him use. It was like he'd aged fifty years as he spoke,

"You know. I have this aunt back home. She was pregnant with this kid, see. And her husband took her to see this movie about mutants or something. I remember her telling me it was the most disgusting thing she's ever seen, and since she was pregnant, she was really sensitive to everything that's make her nauseous."

He chuckled in a low voice, then continued, with me still crouched on the floor. "Everytime anyone mentioned the word 'mutants' or if she'd see anything that reminded her of the movie, she would throw up. Even _after_ she had the baby, mutants made her feel sick."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well," he said, kneeling beside me and wiping sweat from my forehead with his thumb, "In psych class, I remember learning something about how one specific thing in life that no one would care about, would be very significant to another individual."

He then kissed my forehead, which made me cringe. But I still kept my face turned down.

"I think, Mouse, that something happened to you at some stage in your life that makes you so afraid to trust people. This will sound really stupid and corny, but I think you're afraid to be touched because the only time anyone ever touched you, it was only to hurt you."

This whole new mature and intelligent Charlie did not fit well with me.

"Well?" he asked.

"JackJack," was all I said, then got up.

"I really appreciate your psychoanalysis here, but I don't need months of therapy just because I got slapped around."

Just then, X-Ray's voice echoed through the tunnel far ahead of us.

"Yo! Look what Armpit found!"

Charlie and I exchanged glances.

"Do you think what I think it is?" I asked.

_The treasure. _

-------------

Okay, so it wasn't the treasure.

It was a huge carving of a giant onion.

Yes, an onion.

It was like some magnificent altar of the almighty vegetable, But what caught my eye was the thing at the center.

"Why the hell would someone put an X inside an onion?" Squid asked.

Zero looked at him incredulously,

And laughed.

It was a cute laugh. The sound babies make when they see something colorful or amusing. Everyone stopped and watched Zero point and laugh at Squid.

Then he stopped.

We went back to business.

"Well..." I said, looking around at everyone's hopeful faces, "X marks the spot, doesn't it?"

Magnet shrugged.

"Well I guess we start digging."

Armpit shook his head. "Where the hell are we going to get a shov--"

Two shovels suddenly dropped from the sky.

We stared at them with disbelief. I tell you now that none of us had ever looked at a shovel the same way ever again.

Six more shovels dropped from out of nowhere and landed with a series of echoing clangs.

Without much of a word of anything, we each picked up a shovel and began to dig at the onion.

"I guess digging holes wasn't so useless after all," Magnet said, still in disbelief. He smiled and continued digging with a sigh.

X-Ray was the only one who didn't dig with anyone else.

"What's wrong?" I asked him.

He looked up at me with a strange expression on his face of confusion and fear, and all round shock.

"This is _my_ shovel," he said, laughing nervously. "It has the red tape around the handle."

_What the— _

"Hey hey! That was easy... Look what we found!" Squid exclaimed.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

**To everyone****: No, I didn't kill her. : **

**Narutorules03:**** Misspellings. I really hopes I fixed most ofthem. I hate putting that extra 'o' when spelling "choose" or "loose", etc. Thanks so much for all those reviews! I really appreciate them. **

**SisterWolf: ****Yeah, you know, the name LeMoNsOuR is beginning to grow on me even though it wasn't as cool as I thought it was in the third grade. You know that power with the darkness thing; I've never heard of that before. It would, however, be extremely cool to be able to play with shadows and cause illusions. It mgith be one of the more 'amusing' powers. :P **

**Off Dreaming:**** bows I hail you. Oh my God, _ONE SITTING! _I don't know what you were on, but please pass the bong. **

**Heh heh- **

**Bong. **

**Funny word. **

**HEHEHEHEHEHEHE **

**Ok. **

**:P **

**Thanks for the review. **

**the black panther****: Kudos to you for the whole one sitting read, too. God, you must have gotten some high. Did you get a seizure? Are you eyes still in your head? Did you get an eye tumor from the continuous computer light? **

**Lol. Sorry. No more, I swear. **

**Cze****: no she wouldn't be ward of state if Mr. Barlowe man asked permission to adopt her. **

**MAD4magik****: You're too nice to me. –hugs- Aww, I especially loves the "Go LeMoNsOuR." I felt so special. Where are you? I miss Indian Rain. **

**Nosilla****: Ah, the one who still managed to stay in fanfiction since the beginning of time... I really admire you for sitting at the computer until 5 a.m. you crazy, crazy person you. **


	35. The Stupid Onion And What It Did

41

This was it.

Or rather, it was the moment of truth, and the thing we've all been waiting for.

We had been digging for four hours, and the hole in the wall just kept getting bigger and bigger, yet nothing was found but diamonds and a little more diamonds.

_God, if we ever get out of here, we're gonna make Bill Gates eat his heart out!_

Armpit looked at me and laughed heartily.

"Pfft... Bill Gates!" he murmured to himself. "That's funny."

"Armpit," Charlie said "stop sucking up to your dead sister."

Eventually everyone got tired and just... gave up. It had been six hours digging into the hard-as-stone wall and nothing was found. The outline of the onion that had been drawn on the wall was now just a gaping, black hole.

Zero was the only one digging. He had this look of determination on his face, like a soldier not ready to give up hid life just yet... even if he was covered in blood, poopy, and human gizzard.

Just then the wall gave way and dirt crumbled.

And there it was.

And to imagine how all the ancestors, Trout Walker, the Warden, had spent eternity going after it.

A box.

A large chest filled with money.

Well I _hope_ it's money.

I hope to God.

The boys got up and worked together to pull it out.

Zero was staring at something on the chest as they pulled it out.

"Satan," he said.

Charlie and I exchanged glances and stared at zero.

"What?" I said in almost a whisper.

"Satan Yellow..."

"Are you... reading, Zero?" asked Caveman, with a glint in his eyes.

I got up and walked closer to Zero. He was still concentrating on the chest as the boys put it down on the ground. It landed with a loud 'THUNK', with a series of metal jingles from inside.

"What'cha lookin' at, Zero?' asked X-Ray.

"St-stannleey Yel-yel-nats" he said slowly.

Zero looked up at Caveman, who was staring in awe at a rock that he'd found which suspiciously reminded him of a cauliflower.

"Stanley... this thing has your name on it."

Stanley dropped the rock.

--------------------------------------------

"Oh my God... lemme see! Lemme see!" X-Ray said. Everyone crowded around the box, blocking Caveman himself from looking t it.

"You guys, heh heh," X-Ray chuckled helplessly, "I can't see it."

No one heard him.

"LET ME LOOK AT IT, GODDAMIT!"

His voice echoed throughout the cave walls like an angry banshee off to seek revenge on whoever stole her sandwich.

The boys and I stared at him in shock, but moved out of the way.

Caveman scurried towards this wondrous box, and sure as it was, his name was engraved on a metal plate. He also noticed there was something else written on the chest, but it was covered by dirt. He swiped it off and read the words aloud:

"_To whomever is in possession of this trunk;_

_If I am not alive to take responsibility of everything inside, please give to Maggi Yelnate, my daughter_"

A small tear trickled down Caveman's pudgy cheek.

"Maggie died of tuberculosis while Kissin' Kate was off leaving my grandfather stranded in the desert," he said.

I took out the cloth that I had found in Kate's shack that she'd written on during her last days of sanity.

_It belongs to Maggie._

_-K.B._

She must have read what it said on the trunk and felt that it rightfully belonged to this Maggie person.

And then I remembered... it was not always _confirmed,_ but everyone always seemed to have thought Maggie looked so much like that onion picker...

I then wondered if they'd done anything "else" together before Trout Walker caught them kissing...

Caveman and I looked at each other.

The look on _his_ face said, _How did this happen?_

The look on _my_ face said, _We're RICH!_

Magnet suddenly broke the silence.

"Who-hoah! Who knew Caveman was the key to all of this, man?" He 'patted' Caveman hard on the back.

There was a light crackling sound, and then it got louder until it turned into the awful, awful rumbling. It sounded like Satan had just woken up from his nap and wanted his breakfast... which happened to be fresh, half-baked, human souls.

The cracking sound seemed to have come from the huge hole in the wall

In a sudden blast of sound, water gushed out of the hole and literally knocked Zigzag over.

He coughed and sputtered and tried to move out of the way.

"How do we get out?" I screamed as loud as I could, hoping the ancestors would hear me.

The hole we had carved in the wall grew bigger, and so did the mass of gushing water.

X-Ray screamed, fell down to his knees and grabbed my hands like a starving beggar. "Don't let me die. Please! You don't understand!"

I pushed his hands away, disgusted. How could he be so selfish?

"What can I do? What can I DO?" I demanded, frustrated.

'Use your voodoo powers. Get your ancestor people back here and get us out of here!" he begged desperately.

Little did he know, my ancestors cared less about X-Ray, than he cared about any of us.

It wasn't just X-Ray who was stupid enough to think I could get us out of this stupid situation. Eyes wide with hope encircled me as if I was some god who could raise their dead loved ones.

"Well what do you expect me do? HUH?" my voice rose to the point of my voice squeaking. I waved my arms around exaggeratingly, pretending to cast a protection spell over everyone.

"Oooh, I'ma use my invincible powers to make sure you live to see Christmas... whoosh whoosh!"

Squid looked at me blankly, picked up the shovel, and held it high in the air as little droplets of water landed on his face.

"Oh, mighty shovel gods, answer our prayer... TAKE US THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"

Magnet took a step forward and slapped him in the face, causing him to drop the shovel. "Stop it, foo!"

Squid stared at Magnet, shocked, and then lunged forward at Magnet, knocking him over into the growing puddle of water.

I stared at them in disbelief, and then wondered how this could all end when we've gone so far.

I forced myself to think of some clever solution to get us out of here, but my mind was racing so fast, I could barely keep up with what was going on around me. Suddenly I started to cry.

I turned to Charlie, who'd been silent all this time. He was probably trying to find a way out of here himself.

"Charlie, what do I do?" I said between tears.

He gazed at me and I noticed he looked so much older, like this whole ordeal had turned him from a crying, spoiled baby, into a very old man.

His answer made me realize we were in much bigger trouble than I thought.

"I don't know."

I covered my hands with my face, slightly hoping that maybe I might accidentally gouge my eyes out and die.

"At least this couldn't get any worse." Charlie said in a distant voice that wasn't his, and smiled.

At that moment another loud rumble caused a tumble of rocks from the ceiling, caving us in. **CAVING US IN!**

CAVING

US

IN!

I kicked Charlie in the leg. "You IDIOT!"

Suddenly Charlie started laughing.

I'd never forget that laugh... because it will be the only time I'd ever hear one that sounded insane yet brilliant at the same time.

He laughed so hard it got to the point of him having to bend over and hold his stomach. I kicked him in the leg again, just because he annoyed me, and he laughed even harder.

"what's so funny? I don't get it." Squid said stupidly.

Charlie wiped a tear away with one hand, and used that same hand to point upwards.

There was a hole with a brilliant light shining through at the ceiling. It was three stories above us, but it was a hole! A hole that we could escape out of.

I looked at Charlie, still laughing at God's extreme obsession for irony and coincidence, and began smiling myself.

_We are going to get out of this place! _

Armpit looked at me and said,

"But how?"

I frowned.

I hate him.


	36. Dammit

_42_

"Climb! Climb, you idiots!" X-Ray screamed, pushing past everyone and began climbing the rock wall with giant hopes of reaching the hole at the ceiling.

We all dropped our things, and ran for the wall, too.

Except for Zero.

"Zero, come on!"

"But the treasure..." he stuttered, gazing sadly at Kate-Barlow's box that was quickly being drowned in elevating water.

_Where is all of this water coming from?!_

"Zero, come on!"

"I'm not leaving here without the treasure."

I ran towards him and took hold of hid hand, but he snatched it away.

"It's too heavy, Zero."

He shook his head and sat on the box.

"ZERO, YOU IDIOT!" I said, with a horrible chill scrambling up my back bone. I suddenly came to the realization that one of us could actually die due to extreme stupidity.

"There's nothing left for me out there," he said with a single, shallow voice. "This box is the only thing that would change my life if I ever got out of here, and we can't even take it with us."

I looked desperately at the boys who were hopelessly trying to climb the wall, and then back at Zero.

"You think _I _have anywhere to go? Zero, I'm just as stuck as you are, but I still have to _live_, do you _understand_?"

Zero stared at me blankly.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. Armpit was gasping for air out of complete exhaustion.

"We can't do it, Maggie... it's too hard."

I looked up and realized most of the boys had given up climbing. Only ZigZag and Charlie were halfway up. Suddenly a rock gave way under ZigZag's foot and he slipped down the wall, dragging Charlie with him.

"SHIT!" ZigZag screamed, and kicked at the rising water on the ground.

X-Ray began to cry again. Caveman tried to comfort him.

God, we were so close.

"Well," Charlie said, shrugging casually. "I guess we are going to die."

He stretched and leaned against the wall, closing his eyes.

We can't die! We're protagonists, Godammit!

Then I heard it. That tiny, high-pitched sound that I thought would never bring me hope.

"Heloo! Anyone in there?"

Everyone, even X-Ray, fell silent and looked up.

"MOM!" Squid shouted in surprise.

"Smokey? HOW DID YOU GET HERE?!" I screamed up, but no answer came.

A rope appeared from the hole.

"I'll pull up the lightest first!"

A rock fell from the ceiling and shattered to a thousand pieces in front of my feet.

"We're gonna be saved! Hallelujah!" X-Ray exclaimed.

I looked at Zero, who was the lightest out of all of us, and gestured towards the rope.

"I'm not leaving without the chest," he repeated.

I took the chest, and sat on it. "Pendanski will pull the chest up later. But not now. It's not the most important thing in this fucking cavern."

"Now git!" I pushed him towards the rope, and within seconds, he was pulled up.

--------------------------------------------------------------

**ARMPIT'S P.O.V.**

I was the last one to be pulled up. It took the strength of all of the campers to pull me up. :(

When I resurfaced, they all came and patted my on the back as if I ate a huge chocolate cake.

We all thanked Mom, but he never said a word. He simply got out his climbing gear from a satchel he brought and told us to climb down. We were too happy to do anything else, so we did just that.

Mom even offered to help us carry the chest without even questioning what it was! But Zero wouldn't let anyone else touch it but Caveman and Mouse.

When we reached the bottom of the mountain in half an hour, we all just stood there for the longest time.

It was over! It was finished! Just like that!

"We don't know how to thank you, Pendanski!" Maggie exclaimed, smiling from ear to ear. She ran to hug him, but Mom pulled out a gun and pointed it right between her widened eyes.

"Give me the chest."

Zero shook his head.

"Give it to me. Please, Zero," he said, with a suspicious hint of desperation in his voice.

Zero clenched his jaw but walked over to Pendanski and set the treasure chest at his feet.

Pendanski lowered the gun and motioned for me to join the others.

With one hand pointing the gun at us, he took a walkie-talkie with the other hand, and spoke into it.

"Yes, I've found them... I don't know, Lou, it was some kind of miracle. Bring the car over; I used the truck to get here... Yes, Lou..." he nodded to the walkie-talkie

"They have it. They have the box."


	37. The Whole Shabang

**Dedicated to _Saramia_ and _Randomblood_.

* * *

**

**MOUSE'S POV**

**--**

It was so hot that day.

I remember all of us were squinting, still not used to so much brightness after stepping out into the sun like mud men risen from the black depths of the earth.

The Warden arrived in an old, chortling car I've never seen before. She stepped out with the glimmer of her snakeskin boots blinding my eyes, and kept her own eyes only on the chest at Pendanski's feet.

"You," he said to Charlie, "You've had your fun. Get in the car."

Charlie didn't move.

Instead of reacting, the Warden walked towards the chest and tried picking it up.

It was heavy.

"My, my, my. I've waited so goddamn long... and here it is!" Her eyes turned black and widened with greed. She wiped away an invisible tear.

Suddenly realizing the existence of another party, she turned to us, smiling. I've never seen her smile like that. It was so genuine... and so disgustingly evil.

She suddenly realized Charlie's existence.

"DIDN'T I TELL YOU TO GET IN THE CAR?!"

Charlie's wax expression didn't change. He didn't budge, and all he did was steal a glance at me. That look on his face made me lose all hope. Because it was the look of betrayal.

Everyone noticed this and was now staring intently at Charlie.

The Warden's smile was still there, but this time there was a twitch in the corner of her mouth.

"You've done your job, son. You got me the box, and now it's time to go home."

_What?_

The Warden giggled. My God, she sounded crazy.

Her frightening eyes scanned all of us and stopped when they landed on mine.

My heart dipped.

"I hear voices too," she said menacingly.

My heard dropped even lower.

I shook my head in denial, while she nodded assuredly.

"Yes,' she sniffed the air, "They're _my _ancestors, lil' girl, not yours. But they are cunning things," she snickered, "and they'll stop at nothing to get what they've worked all their lives for..."

She shook the box in her hands. Coins jingled from the inside.

"This."

She nodded at Magnet. "They knew from the moment Magnet found that little map during his... escapade... that we've finally found it! We've found my grandfather's treasure!"

"Then why didn't you just look for the goddamn treasure yourself?" Squid spoke up.

"Why, because—" The Warden started.

"—Because why would she need to do it herself when she could have us do the dirty work for her..." I realized aloud.

"Yes, yes, that's right. You should have known not to tell your secrets to omnipresent dead people!"

My thoughts led to Charlie. He was pathetically cowering inside the Warden's car. He was still in his Powerpuff Girl shorts but had put on a shirt that was in the car.

The first person I let myself trust since JackJack... and... and he ends up being no better than him.

"I hate you," I said.

Charlie just turned away.

"YOU COWARD!!" I screamed. The Warden slapped me and pushed me back in line.

I felt a stinging sensation in my eyes.

"What are you gonna do now?" ZigZag asked.

The Warden casually took her gun out of its holster and pointed it at ZigZag.

"You get lost in the desert, of course. And Charlie here, your _hostage_ was the only remaining survivor. He will tell us that he tried to save you, but those yellow-spotted lizards were just too fast and—" she wiped another invisible tear from her eyes with one polished finger.

"Oh, officer! I tried to stop them! But they just ran and ran and... I'm just glad my son made it home in one piece," she said, reciting what she would say to the police...

_After she killed us_, I realized.

"What stupid idiot will think we've been killed by yellow-spotted-lizards after finding bullets lodged in out brains?"

The Warden giggled again. "There are many holes in the desert. It would take them a hundred years to find which ones y'all are buried in." She shrugged. "Or we could just dump your bodies in this here cavern."

She pointed the gun at me.

"You bother me the most. You're going first."

"Mom!" Charlie suddenly said, and stepped out of the car.

"Can I kill one?"

The Warden smiled. "Of course, pumpkin."

She motioned to Pendanski, who handed the gun to Charlie.

"Pick one," the Warden said impatiently.

Charlie pointed it towards X-Ray, who whimpered.

But he shot it at the Warden's hand.

The first shot didn't make it, but his second shot knocked the gun right out of his mother's grip.

It landed on the ground with a dusty clatter. Squid hurried to pick it up, and he pointed it at Charlie.

"Not me, you idiot!"

"Sorry."

Squid pointed the gun at Pendanski.

Pendanski instinctively rose his hands in the air, as did Charlie's own mother.

"Baby, you're not gonna kill me," the Warden smiled. "I know ye. You ain't got the balls...just like yer father"

Charlie said nothing at first., but managed to choke out the words.

"I won't kill you, mommy. But I can still shoot you."

The Warden's manic smile disappeared.

"You're grounded."

---------------------------

Charlie managed to get everyone into the truck with one gun pointed at Pendanski, and the other pointed at his own mother.

"What about the car?"

"Leave it there."

Pendanski drove back to the camp with a gun pointed at his head.

"Who you calling a coward?" Charlie said to me.

I forced back a smile.

During the ride, everyone was animatedly in conversation, recalling everything that they'd been through.

Magnet hid the soaked map in his jumper, vowing very loudly to everyone that he would bury it and start a mystery of his own.

The truck stopped.

There was another car parked outside Mr. Sir's office. In closer inspection we saw a small woman in a purple business suit yelling at a very enervated Mr. Sir.

"Where is he? Where is Stanley Yelnats?" the woman demanded.

"He's out there digging his hole! You just have to wait here until he finishes."

"If he is out there digging his hole, then why are all the other boys here?"

"Well you see, he's a slow digger and—"

"Hey!" Charlie yelled.

Both Mr. Sir and the woman turned to us.

What a sight we must have been! A boy wearing Powerpuff Girl boxer shorts with a gun in his hand, followed by seven disheveled boys—one carrying a rusted chest, and some midget Asian girl.

"They've stolen that treasure from my home, officer! They're thieves!" the Warden screamed, scrambling out of the truck towards a Texas Ranger that was patiently standing near the woman in the purple suit.

"And this boy..." she pointed to Charlie, "was in charge of the whole thing!"

The light left in Charlie's face disappeared.

"You are not my son any more." She said coldly, leaving Charlie standing there with the gun hanging from his thumb.

Zero climbed out of the truck with Caveman's help, carrying the box with him.

He smiled, and jingled the box in his hands.

"This," he said, turning to the Warden, and then to the Texas Ranger, who was silent, "is not hers. It's Stanley's!"

The Warden laughed as if he was a small child that had said something incredibly silly. "Now, now. You're caught, little boy. You can stop playing your games."

She tried grabbing the chest from him, but Zero pulled away.

"IT HAS HIS NAME ON IT! SEE? _ST-AN-LEY YEL-NATS_!"

The Warden backed away, wide-eyed.

"But..." she struggled, finding some excuse to take her away from this horrible situation she'd gotten into, "But he can't read! No, no..." She laughed again, but this time her voice was shaken.

"This boy can't read."

"Well, it doesn't matter if I can read or not, lady. This chest has Stanley's name on it."

Magnet laughed.

Caveman walked over, looked at his engraved name, and said sarcastically with great surprise,

"Well so it does!"

At that moment it began raining.

Immediately there was a rush of orange as the boys from all tents rushed outside screaming and laughing.

One of them noticed the commotion that was going on. He also recognized our faces.

"They're alive!" he exclaimed.

Many of the boys came and crowded around us, slapping high-fives and bear hugging each other.

_This man-to-man affection is scaring me. Let's get out of here!_

I ran out into the rain and began screaming at the top of my lungs and twirling around in circles.

The rain washed away the dirt on my face and the heat in my skin.

Was I laughing? Crying? I didn't have any idea, but I was fucking happy!

I ran up to a random boy playing in the rain and laughed in his face.

It was The Masher!

I immediately stopped laughing.

_Oh shit._

He raised his arm, and I flinched, closing my eyes.

"I love you man," he said, hugging me.

I squealed girlishly and hugged him back.

How strange it was that the first person I would hug was the same kid who punched my face in!

When he pulled away I kicked him in the shins.

Suddenly I felt hands encircle my waist and lift me high into the air.

_We're flying!_

I was twirled around and around, with "the feelings" rushing around my body. I thought they would never stop.

I was lowered and my face met up with Charlie's.

I stopped laughing. He didn't.

For a while it was like that, with his hands on my waist and him laughing into my face.

"Stop that."

He tilted his head back and laughed even harder.

"Stop, I say!"

Suddenly his grip on my waist tightened and he pressed his mouth right onto mine.

_Oh my God, get him off us!_

But I didn't.

And we stood there kissing in the mud and dirty rain, with him stroking my cheek with his thumb, with screaming criminals spinning in circles, splashing mudwater at our faces.

Then it had to end.

"LYDIA!!"

My blood froze and the chill spread through my whole body.

_That voice..._

Charlie lifted his face from mine and smiled. His smile quickly disappeared.

"What's wrong?"

"LYDIA!" cried the voice from the distance again.

I began crying—quietly at first, and then into loud sobs of aggravation. My knees buckled, and Charlie had to hold me up.

"Mouse! What's wrong?" Charlie demanded, trying to keep me from falling intro the mud. "Please, why are you crying!"

"Lydia! There you are! I was calling for you!" the voice was much nearer now. I could tell he was right behind me.

I brought my mouth to Charlie's ear and begged, "Please, don't let him take me..."

Charlie looked up and met the face of the only other living person I loved.

"Hi," he said. "I'm her brother. I've come to take Lydia home."

-------------------

* * *

**Oopsi... cliffy tee**

**I'm very sad to say the story is nearing an end (after two years, oh my Gods-). And because of this, I may have not answered all the questions and mysteries that the story brought. If there is still something you were wondering about, just review it ;)**

**Thunderspell: Oh my. Make sure to save some asparagus for the geese. The ducks have had their share of legumes!**

**Saramia: Armpit can read minds. Thank you so much for taking all that time to read my ficcy!! Even I wouldn't be able to do that. I'm glad I inspired, lol. And thanks to my holiday, Ima read your story! Muahaha! That's the least I could do for you reading mine. ;D Thanks again.**

**Thanks also to Randomblood and OffDreaming**


	38. And they lived, umm, ever after

**YES! HERE IT IS!!! HaH! Okay, i may be more excited than I should be, but this was a fanfic more than two years in the making...  
AND NOW IT'S DONE!!!!!! AHHH!!!**

**Thank you to _Sarimia_, _Off Dreaming_ and especially _RandomBlood_ for all the reviews. **

Now, where did I leave off?

Oh yeah...  
Jackjack...

_I brought my mouth to Charlie's ear and begged, "Please, don't let him take me..."_

_Charlie looked up and met the face of the only other living person I loved._

_"Hi," he said. "I'm her brother. I've come to take Lydia home."_

**CHARLIE'S P.O.V.**

"No... Charlie, please, don't let him...don't let him..." Mouse begged, holding onto me so tightly I felt like I was going to tip over.

I have never seen a man with more contradictory features. He had tattoos everywhere, but he was wearing a clean polo shirt. His features looked rough but his eyes melted as they looked only at Mouse. He was carrying a blue umbrella in one hand.

The stranger just smiled sympathetically and reached out for Mouse. She shuddered as his fingertips touched her shoulder.

I pulled her back away from him. I didn't know who he was, but any person who would make Mouse act like this couldn't be trusted at all.

"Come on now, Lydia. You're free, now. The Warden was just arrested, the camp is closed, and the guy who gave you the drugs was found three days ago. He confessed everything. He even described you in every detail and—"

"THAT'S BECAUSE IT WAS YOU!" Mouse screamed, pulling from me and facing the stranger.

"YOU were the one who gave me the cocaine and YOU were the one who got me into this shit hole that I'd rather be in instead of being with you, Jack!"

Jack backed three steps away.

"That's not true, you don't understand—well it _is _true but..."

He was cut short by a punch in the face.

Jack was knocked over into the mud. An A-Tenter who was running around tripped on Jack's head and fell into the mud.

A few of the 'campers' were now gathered in a crowd around what was happening.

Mouse stood over her brother, staring down at him.

"I hate you, Jack! I hate you! Why did you come! You told me you never wanted to see me again and now you just..."

Mouse closed her eyes.

"Why did you come?" she said, choking back a lump in her throat.

I walked towards her, but she put her hand on my chest to stop me.

"I'm sorry," she only said to me.

"No, _I'm_ sorry," said Jack, getting up.

"But I only sent you away to protect you."

* * *

**Some references near the end to chapter 35 **

**MOUSE'S P.O.V.**

There was a thud. The sound came from Mrs. Morengo, the woman in the purple suit, closing her car door... with Caveman and Zero inside.

"I'll be right back," Charlie said, running towards the car.

Jack smiled, glancing at Charlie as he ran off.

"Who's that?" he asked playfully.

"He," I stared defiantly into his face, "is none of your fucking business, Jack."

He stopped smiling, but that look in his eyes was still there.

"Come inside. You're soaking wet. I'll explain everything there." He reached for my hand, but I snatched it away.

_Eww! He touched us! _

"Where else are you going to go, Lyd?" he said to me, looking around. "The camp is hereby closed."

"_Anywhere_ else."

"Please... you don't know what it was like..." he picked up the umbrella and held it over his head even thought he was soaked.

"Mom and dad... it was the worst time for them to leave you..." he hesitated. "I just couldn't take care of you, do you see? My life was a mess."

_He's lying! He's gross and he's lying!_

"I did drugs... I _sold_ drugs... I almost killed a man, Lydia! I was drunk almost every day...And then our parents had to die and...I just couldn't be the one to take care of you."

He handed me the umbrella. I looked into his face, trying to find some spark of a truth, or a lie, or anything! I took the umbrella and held it numbly over my head, letting him stand in the rain.

"Then, when I was in the middle of one of my... business attempts... I saw you walking there right past me, and I suddenly thought of it... I thought... maybe being in jail was better than being... with me."

"Why couldn't you just leave me with someone else? Why couldn't you give me away?!"

"Because then I'd never be able to find you, or have some reason or motivation to fix myself... which I did. I did! And now I'm begging you to give me one more chance."

Most of the boys were now standing together and looking at us to see what I would say next.

"What about the letter?" I asked in a small voice that wasn't mine.

Jack shook head. "What letter?"

"The one saying how much you hated me... and..."

"I didn't write any letter."

w------w

h--------------------h

* * *

a--------------------a

t-------t

The Warden had planned everything.

Jack and I sat in the Rec room, we being the only two there. He told me that one night, whilst he was as drunk as a squirrel in a beer keg, he used the phone number that the judge had given him and called the Warden, telling her everything.

"And I mean Everything. Every single detail, even things that had nothing to do with anything. I just rambled on and on about whatever was in my drunken mind and she just listened."

He was surprised that the Warden didn't tell the police, and that she told him she would 'let' me stay.

It wasn't until now that we realized the Warden only let me stay because I was one extra person to dig for the treasure. By this time, the Warden had also realized, thanks to the "_**ancestors**__**" **_that I was Kate Barlowe's granddaughter, that she could also use me to lead her to that treasure.

She wrote the letter to make me hate him, and so if he ever tried to call me or send me another letter, I would just reject him altogether and want to stay at camp Greenlake.

After all of that, JackJack sighed and forced a smile.

"Do you hate me?"

"Meh."

"Who was that boy?"

"That was Charlie... Charlie Walker."

JackJack laughed—which annoyed me—and slapped the table.

"Who knew... Trout Walker would get his chance with Kate Barlow after all!"

"You mean their ancestors."

"Yeah well..."

"And I'm not a real Barlow... I'm adopted."

"Yeah well..."

He held the tips of my fingers. "You're a Barlow at heart."

"That was so corny."

"Yeah well...'

I felt another presence in the Rec Room.

"Hey Caveman. I thought you left."

Caveman and Zero stood there at the door. Charlie came up behind them.

"That note you found... remember? The one Kate Barlow wrote, saying the treasure belonged to you..."

I shook my head. "It has Stanley's name on it. It was stolen by my great grandmother, but it originally belongs to the Yelnats."

"Yeah but..." Caveman started.

"Whatever is in that box belongs to you and your family. It was taken away from you by a crazy woman who's dead now... so she can't really stop you from taking it..."

Silence.

"Cool."

And they left.

Charlie stepped into the Rec-room, soaked. He could tell from looking at our faces that I'd changed my mind about my decision concerning going back home with him.

"Good luck, both of you," he said, standing there.

"What's going to happen to you?' I asked Charlie. I didn't move from my spot and neither did he.

"I'm basically an orphan now. I guess I'll be sent to some facility filled with children of great pain and angst in their hearts."

"I can always adopt you," JackJack said.

"No no... that would make Mouse my sister—or my aunt, or something..." he looked at me, still shaking his head, "and that wouldn't work."

I stood up.

"So then what?" I asked.

"So then..." Charlie shrugged. "Goodbye."

_What?_

"But..."

"I'll write to you..." Charlie said, taking two steps forward.

"I don't have an address... you don't either."

"I'll call you.'

"We don't have phone numbers..."

"You and your negative thinking."

"This can't be where we leave off."

"But it is."

I lifted my hand for him to shake it. He instead brought it to his lips.

_Let's go! If you make me stay here a moment longer I'll grow a tumor inside of you!_

Jack got up and walked me to Mr. Sir's office where I noticed a small, blue Toyota.

"Get in," JackJack said gently as he opened the door.

Jack put the key in the ignition and the car started with a low hum. I missed that sound so much.

"Seatbelts."

I heard a tap at my window.

It was Armpit.

JackJack rolled down the window.

"I'll miss you, Maggie." Sniffling, he took out a piece of paper from his pocket.

"This is my mother's number... _our_ mother's number," he said, laughing. "Please tell her Theodore says 'I'm sorry'. Will you do that?"

I took the piece of paper. "Okeedoke."

The car drove away.

I took one last look at the Warden, Mr. Sir, and Pendanski being arrested and taken away, the D-Tenters waving goodbye, the other boys dancing in the rain, and Charlie silently watching his mother get shoved into a police car.

At the last minute, he looked my direction and said something to me.

"What?!" I cried out of the car window.

He said it again, but I never heard him.

He was too far away.

Without turning to face him, I said to Jack; "did you know that black boy is my brother, too?'

Jack didn't show any signs of surprise

"Really? Tell me about it."

And I did.

* * *

**-goes to eat a sandwich-**

* * *

Well, my story ends here.

For a while, JackJack and I lived in the car, and then at a motel. He found a job at a Wal-Mart's as a cashier.

Eventually, with the inheritance money from our parents, we managed to buy an apartment in New York.

I mailed Stanley and Zero, telling them about my "travels". Then two weeks after, a very skinny and clean-shaven Stanley Yelnats arrived at our home with a cheque for fifty thousand dollars in his rich little hand.

On the envelope it said _for Maggie._

I was happy.

When I turned sixteen, we decided to go visit the place we used to live; the exact alley where I was arrested and taken away to Camp Greenlake. Nothing changed, except for the new Hooters built two buildings away.

A drunken man, also stuffed up on dope, surprised us from behind. He stupidly pulled out a pistol and told us both we upset the oyster gods and that we needed to be killed.

JackJack tried to get the man to leave, and when he didn't he tried to take the gun away, but Jack ended up getting shot in the neck.

He died.

The drunken man staggered off, leaving me sitting on the concrete soaked in my dead brother's blood.

That was when I realized what my 'guardian angel' had been telling me all along. Those two years with my brother were just one long goodbye. That day, he died so I could live, just as that angel in my dream had said he would. Two years was all I had, but it was all I needed.

That was the worst day of my life.

I was then told to pack my bags. They took me to Texas where Armpit—who insisted on being called Theodore— had lived with is family.

They welcomed me with open arms. I learned to answer to the name of Mouse, and Maggie. No one called me Lydia ever again.

Just a few years later, I managed to have a place of my own.

Then, one Christmas, the doorbell rang.

I opened the door.

A handsome man in a moustache stood there in a scarf and a French coat with a colorful parcel in his gloved hands.

"Oh, hello." I said.

"Merry Christmas," he said.

"Who the hell are you?"

'God, you've become so beautiful."

"That's nice."

I closed the door.

The doorbell rang again.

I opened it.

"Oh... it's you."

"You didn't take my present," he said, giving me the box.

I took it.

"I hope it's not a bomb. I haven't taken the turkey out of the oven yet."

"It's not a bomb," he assured me, "It's a present."

"Oh good. That's what I thought it was."

He shook his head.

"You haven't changed... but you look so... so much happier, Mouse."

I stopped twisting the ribbons on the parcel and looked right at his strange grin.

_What did you call me?_

Then I realized...

"Can I come in?" he asked.

I couldn't help but smile.

"Sure, Charlie...but WAIIT!!"

"What?"

"Wipe your feet."

* * *

_Thanks to everyone who reviewed, including **Thunderspell**, **Lilmizzrebel31** (although I think she changed her pename... it's been so long!), **MAD4magik**, **Czelene** (with all your different names to make it look like different people with the same idea... good luck giving away illegal medications under false names. You know what I mean... : )., **Nosilla**, **narutorules03**, **Fk306animelover**, **ArwenEvenstar83**, **Renodori** (Perky Pyromaniac, yes, I remember that name, lol), **DisasterZone16**, and **meltedicecreamisme**.  
You people kept me going._

**It's strange, you know, finishing a story like that. I feel as if I'd finished a book or something, and now I have nothing else to do. I never planned for it to finish, and I never planned for Charlie to last for more than two chapters, that horrible bastard child that I've come to love among many other characters. I enjoyed writing this so much, and I enjoyed all 224 reviews even more!**

**And**

**Thank you for reading.**


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